Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: To Live
by Traveling Trainer
Summary: Flung into a future where time flows freely, Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir find themselves in a lively land of ice and snow. Given a second chance to live, how will the trio readjust to a normal life in a new world after years of battling against the darkness? With new friends and foes around the corner, it may not be as simple as they think.
1. Chapter 1

"Can you hear me!? We are alive!"

The cheer could be heard loud and clear through the still, chilly air, quickly fading out as the sun rose higher and higher over the open sea. The light sparkled off of the water, bouncing off of every icicle and flake of snow that could be seen on the far horizon. As Celebi and Dusknoir drew up to his sides, Grovyle brought his hands to his mouth, yelling out as strongly as his lungs would let him, his triumphant call rising even above the breathing of the god of time behind them. "Bill! Rose! Can you hear me!? We are alive! We are alivugh-"

The lizard's eyes widened as a jolt of pain rippled through his body, and he felt himself crumple to his knees, digging his claws into the icy ground with a wince. He heard Celebi gasp, and a large hand lifted him back to his feet; he sent the ghostly Pokemon a short nod of thanks as Dusknoir firmly grasped Grovyle's shoulder.

"Steady yourself, Grovyle…" He said, a note of concern evident in his low, gruff voice. "What's wrong?"

"I…" Grovyle muttered, feeling lightheaded as he continued to gaze in awe at the mountain view. Shaking his head, he planted his hands on his legs and pushed, standing up straight as he exhaled. He reached up to rub at his head, only to feel his body throb once more as he touched his claws to his forhead. The leaves on his arms seemed to waver from the cold as he knelt down again, breathing heavily. "I feel exhausted…"

"What?" Celebi asked in surprise, her wings fluttering as she flew in front of her fellow grass-type, cupping his chin in her tiny hands as she looked into his eyes. He shivered as he finally felt the full strength of the high-altitude winds, the very evidence that time was flowing once again. After everything, mere moments after being given a second chance… were they going to fall here and now? "But that doesn't… doesn't make… any…"

The fairy trailed off, losing her grip on her friend as her eyes rolled back in her head, and Grovyle instinctively reached his arms out, catching her as she drifted into unconsciousness. His heart raced as he cradled Celebi's body close to his chest, and he resisted the urge to flop over himself, instead shuffling around bit-by-bit until he could stare at the great dragon behind them. Dusknoir floated forward a few paces, gesturing towards Dialga in confusion.

"Master Dialga-" The ghost started, but the temporal Pokemon cut him off with a curt stomp of his feet, the ice audibly cracking underneath his steel-toed legs. Dusknoir moved back as Dialga stepped off of the slight incline, turning to face them. Underneath his gaze, one that no longer held any malice, Grovyle couldn't help but feel quite small.

"NO." The reply was short, but held just as much force as the wind that buffeted them. "YOUR MASTER WAS… A PRIMAL BEAST. I AM DIALGA, AND I AM NOT YOUR MASTER."

"…Dialga," Dusknoir began again. "What is happening to-!"

Without warning, Dusknoir collapsed mid-sentence, not even trying to push against the ground as he lay awkwardly atop the peak of the mountain. Grovyle sucked in a breath, feeling woozy again as his vision began to blur. He could still make out Dialga's shape, nodding his head slightly as the two Pokemon eyed each other.

"DESPITE RETURNING TO LIFE… WE STILL BATTLED, IN ANOTHER TIME, IN A DARKER PLACE," Dialga's voice boomed, making Grovyle's ears ring, and the grass type instinctively glanced at his arms and his sides – the feeling of blood, trickling from innumerable cuts and punctures, seemed so close yet so far away. "THE GREAT PARADOX OF A WORLD OF FROZEN TIME."

"A paradox!?" Grovyle sputtered, lurching as his strength gave out, and he rolled onto his side, focusing all of his effort on keeping a hold on one of Celebi's arms. Dialga began to walk around, moving past the trio as if he was unaware of their plight. The grass type stared weakly at the dragon's feet, blinking away tears of pain. "W-what… how is that possible?"

"TIME IS NOT SOMETHING THAT SIMPLY STARTS AND ENDS," The god continued to explain, forlornly sitting down on the ice and bowing his head. The warmth of the sun finally seemed to cut through the wind, and Grovyle sighed in slight relief as the heat staved off the numbness that had begun to creep up on him. "THE PLANET WAS PARALYZED, BUT THE WORLD ITSELF CONTINUED TO MOVE. TIME FLOWED ONWARD, EVEN WITHOUT MY GUIDANCE TO MAKE IT SUPPORT THE LIFE IT CARRIED."

"T-that-" Grovyle paused. "But then where are we? I thought that Bill and Rose were able to stop the planet's paralysis…"

"THEY DID," Dialga answered, unable to keep from chuckling, and Grovyle frowned deeply at the dragon, who quickly coughed to clear his throat. He turned his head towards the path leading down the mountain, seemingly smiling to himself as his body began to shimmer and fade. "DO NOT FEAR. SOMEONE COMES, EVEN AS WE SPEAK."

His vision blurry, Grovyle tried to reach out towards Dialga with his other arm, his hand trembling as the dragon's figure vanished from sight. "Wait… Dialga, wait… I don't understand!"

"LIVE, GROVYLE." Everything began to sound like it was coming from further and further away, Dialga's voice almost deafening in its volume, and Grovyle felt his muscles tense; at this point, he couldn't tell if it was from the noise, the wind, or his own exhaustion. "THAT IS HOW YOU WILL UNDERSTAND. YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE FUTURE."

"Dialga… Dialga…" Grovyle muttered under his breath as the presence of the god finally seemed to disappear, the cold finally biting through his body as he let his arms fall limp. The wind, sun, and sparkling ice passed into darkness as he closed his eyes, unable to keep the leaden lids open anymore. All he could do was listen, stuck between staying awake and letting himself drift into sweet oblivion.

…

"Yama!"

Who… who was that woman speaking to…

"Yama, dear, there's Pokemon up here! They look hurt! Quickly!"

"I can hear you just fine, hun, I'm coming! Just move yer tail and see how bad they look up close!"

Grovyle barely registered the pair of paws that slowly rolled him onto his back, his mind having long since wandered off at this point. A couple dribbles of water ran down his cheeks, only to be wiped away by soft fur. He opened his eyes just barely, seeing a faded pink blotch that took up most of his vision. "D-Dialga…"

"Don't talk, dear, just rest. We'll make sure you'll be okay. Yama! There's three explorers up here, one of them is just barely conscious!"

Something stomped up to them, the ice that covered the stones feeling wet. A hearty voice answered the other. "Hoo… boy, these three really did take a tumble, didn't they, eh? And is that a Celebi?"

"Quickly, you get those two, dear," The woman spoke quietly, lifting the lizard up, and he let himself lay still, his hand finally slipping away from his friend's. "I'll take him. We need to get them to the guild as soon as we can."

"Dialga… I don't understand…" Grovyle mumbled.

"Dialga?" The male asked, to nobody in particular. "Lin, hun, what's he babbling about over there? I heard him say something!"

"Di… ughh… aaaaagh…"

"I don't know, dear. I think you're hearing things, he's just groaning. Poor dear, they all must have gotten to the summit and then passed out from the effort. And I don't see a bag anywhere... did they try to climb the mountain without supplies!?"

"Heh! Well, these two are definitely out cold, so maybe yer right, hun. Let's get moving before we all turn into ice sculptures, eh?"

"Uhgh…" Grovyle barely managed to try and speak one last time before letting himself stay still again, still teetering on the edge of sleep. The wind blew past him as he felt himself carried, the footsteps going from ice to stone, echoing around, and finally the crunch of snow.

…

"Pansear?"

…another voice? Another lady… who were all these Pokemon? And where were they coming from? His eyes still felt heavy.

"Pansear! His breathing's changed! Maybe he's starting to wake up!"

"Sorry, nurse, ma'am!" Someone young. "What should I get? Oh, wait, you need more aspear ointment like you asked for before, right?"

"Maybe!" The nurse repeated herself. "Maybe, how many times have we gone over what each berry does? Yes, please bring me the aspear ointment… no, maybe the distilled oran medicine…"

"You got it, ma'am!" The boy's feet pounded against the wood as he ran off, and Grovyle groaned, feeling something roughly grab the leaf on his head and rub vigorously. The barest hint of strength seemed to return to his body, and he tried to reach up to the intruding Pokemon, only to have his hands smacked away. Something underneath him itched profusely, but when he tried to scratch his back his hands were smacked away again, and he grumbled.

"I can see what you're trying to do, and maybe you should stop, because you need to just lay still!" The nurse scolded him, and he couldn't help but feel mildly embarrassed, letting his arms rest at his sides as the Pokemon worked away, moving from his head to his shoulders, to the leaves on his arms. "You and your two friends are lucky you were just suffering from exhaustion! Fainting on the top of Mount Avalanche, honestly, maybe!"

The sound of rickety wheels rolled into the room, and Grovyle heard a rattling as something was set nearby. "Nurse Audino, we've got what you asked for right here! Should I apply the ointment first, or give him the oran medicine?"

"Oh for Arceus' sake, Pansear, maybe…" Audino left away from her patient briefly. "Hmm, maybe… maybe…"

"What…" Grovyle croaked out, wincing at the sound of his own voice, and he arched his back as he tried to find the source of the irritating itch. "Where… am I…"

"Nurse Audino, ma'am, you give him some oran medicine and I'll do the ointment!" Pansear said, upbeat and chipper as could be, and something cool and sticky was suddenly dabbed onto his chest, sending the grass type back down onto… whatever he was laying on. Audino grasped his nose, forcing his mouth open, and a thin, overpoweringly flavorful juice ran down his gullet, making him cough and sputter as he tried to swallow the strong-tasting liquid. "Ma'am, could you help me hold him down?"

"Yes, maybe, I can see that!" The nurse replied crabbily. Grovyle heaved as he felt the two Pokemon hold his sides to keep him still, and he snapped his jaw shut, smacking his lips as the taste of the oran medicine seemed to fill his entire mouth, from roof to bottom. "Just let the medicine go down without a fuss!"

"Have…" Grovyle tried to speak, though it came out as more of a hoarse cough. "I have!"

"Then just go back to sleep!" She replied forcefully, and someone started to spread the chilly, sticky ointment around his body, the goop suddenly feeling very warm against his belly, and the grass type let out a pleasant sigh, suddenly feeling very tired again. Had the struggle to gulp down the medicine really taken that much out of him?

"I'm… ugh... I'll… live," He mumbled under his breath, letting his head rest as he finally began to feel like he could really fall asleep. Everything started to sound far away again, one of the Pokemon humming to himself as he applied the ointment to the leaves on his arm. "Live…"

"Yes, just go to sleep, like you're doing, maybe," The nurse reassured, still grouchy, but sounding far less annoyed than before. "Maybe you'll feel better with more bedrest, once the ointment fully sets in!"

"…live…" Grovyle felt himself slip into slumber, finally falling fully asleep after what had felt like forever.

* * *

Everything was pain.

Grovyle groaned as his eyes fluttered open, scrunching them back shut as light flooded his vision, making him grimace in pain as dull patches of color faded in and out of the darkness. After a few moments, he let out a loud yawn, stretching his arms and legs as the bed creaked underneath him, and he brought a hand in front of his face as he let his eyelids open just a crack. Blinking a few times, everything came into focus as daylight streamed in from a window across the… the…

Daylight?

Daylight!

"It's morning!" Grovyle yelled, jerking upwards into a sitting position, and he gasped as a sudden grogginess pounded at his skull. Clutching his forehead with his claws, he grunted as he felt bile in the back of his throat, and he took deep breaths in and out, staring wide-eyed at the frosted window across the room. As his nausea and lightheadedness began to fade, the lizard glanced at something that tickled his side: a yellow blanket, kicked askew when he'd shot up. Looking down, he could see bits and pieces of thin, dry grass, piled onto a wooden frame. "Ugh?"

He glanced around the room, taking in the unfamiliar sight of cut logs and the unfamiliar scent of resin. Other beds, adorned with the same set of wood, feather pillow, hay and blanket, lined the walls, a small table sat next to each one. Looking to his side, Grovyle noticed the table next to his own bed, a small candleholder sitting atop it to make up for the lack of windows on his wall. He reached out to feel the cold metal, the candle halfway melted and its wick blackened from use. "Where… where am I…?"

Looking around the room again, he frowned at the empty beds, shaking the leaf on his head as it lay flat against his back. He could hear something outside the windows, but the walls were thick enough to make anything outside into nothing more than barely-audible noise. "Hello? Celebi? Dusknoir?"

His call was only met with silence, and Grovyle narrowed his eyes, drumming his claws against the table as he began to think hard. "Okay… what's the last thing I remember?"

He remembered the mountain. He remembered fighting Primal Dialga. He remembered watching the sunrise with Celebi and… he remembered reappearing. He remembered the three of them suddenly collapsing with exhaustion. And then… "Dialga… he said something about a… time paradox? And… to live?"

Swinging his legs over the side of his bed, he stepped down onto the floor, a chill running down his spine from the cold wood, and he grunted as another throb of pain ran through his head. "Ugh… but how did I get from there to here?"

Shivering a bit, Grovyle reached over to the blanket and wrapped himself up, the thick wool fluffy and warm, and he took a shaky step forward, steadying himself before taking another. "Hello? Is anyone else here? Hello!"

Taking a glance outside the window, he stopped and blinked, watching the white flecks that seemed to be falling from… somewhere. Entranced, he wobbled his way over to the other end of the room, grasping both ends of the blanket in one hand as he pressed the other up against the glass. His heart skipped a beat at the frozen feeling that ran down his claws, but he kept still. "Is this what snow-"

Something scraped against wood, Grovyle tensing at the sound, and he swiveled on his heels, readying himself as he took a defensive position… and gasping in pain again as the sudden movement sent another wave of nausea through him, and he stumbled backwards, leaning against the bed as he held his head in his hands, closing his eyes as he gritted his teeth. "Blaugh… that was stupid…"

"Oh," A warm, elderly voice replied, and Grovyle heard the door shut as footsteps came towards him. "You're out of bed already, hoho! I'm quite impressed… I had guessed you'd only be walking after a day or two more!"

"Wha?" Grovyle opened his eyes as he felt a pair of flippers on his chest and back, easing him down onto the bed, and he turned his head to look at his visitor. A red penguin, with friendly eyes and fluffy white feathers from his face to his chest, smiled kindly at him, picking up the end of his bag-shaped tail before waddling over to the neighboring bed and climbing on top of it. As the Pokemon fidgeted about to get himself comfortable, Grovyle's mind went into overdrive, and he was unable to keep a string of questions from escaping his mouth. "Who are you? Where am I- wait, what did you mean by that? Where are Ce-"

"Hoho, slow down there!" The bird wiggled his flippers at him, letting his tail sit atop the bed as he calmed down the panicking grass type. Grovyle took a deep breath and sighed, letting his own blanket fall away as he rested his hands against his knees. "Good, just relax. You've been through a lot in the past day or so, hoho!"

"The last… day?" Grovyle repeated, more to himself than to the speaker. The very concept still sounded foreign to him. "What… what happened?"

"Well, I was hoping you'd be able to tell me that," The penguin answered, stifling a laugh with his flipper. "You and your two other explorer friends slept through just about the entire day and night, hoho!"

"Slept… the whole… what?" Grovyle flinched, reaching over to stroke the leaves on his arms. "I remember being on the summit of the Vast Ice Mountain when the sun was rising, and then-"

"Where did you say now?" The other Pokemon interrupted, and Grovyle looked over at the bird, confusion evident in his dark-ringed eyes. "Sorry to cut you off, hoho, but I've never heard of a place called Vast Ice Mountain."

"You haven't?" Grovyle asked, sitting still for a moment as he glanced outside the window. The white things, the falling snow, had disappeared… "But… then… huh?"

"You must still be a little out of it from the exhaustion, hoho, don't be too worried." The bird smiled at him, stroking his beard of feathers. "Why don't we start over from the beginning, hoho? We'll probably make a little progress that way."

"I… alright," Grovyle conceded, nodding gently as he scooched a little further up the bed. "I guess I'll start with… who are you?"

"Hoho, well, my name is Delibird!" The red penguin patted his beard before reaching a flipper outward, and Grovyle took it into his hand, giving it a firm shake. "I'm the master of the Delibird Rescuer Guild stationed here at Snowrest Village!"

"Snowrest… Village? T-the Guildmaster?" Grovyle blinked in surprise, stuttering a bit as his thoughts were derailed. Amidst his muddled words, Delibird chortled heartily, rocking back and forth against the bed, which creaked from the movement.

"Hohohoho, what's with all the fuss?" The Guildmaster asked nonchalantly, a grin plastered on his beak. "Come on now, no need to be all uptight. Just 'Delibird' or 'Guildmaster' is fine with me, hoho. It's what most Pokemon call me, anyway!"

"S-so…" Grovyle said, managing to think of another question to change the subject. A Rescuer Guild? The Guildmaster? It was starting to become too much to take at once. "Am I being kept here in the guild, then? How did I get here? And where are Celebi and Dusknoir?"

"Yes you are, hoho," Delibird confirmed with a nod, hopping off of his bed and moving over to Grovyle's side, and the lizard helped the elderly Pokemon up next to him. He held out the blanket to the Guildmaster, who then took it and wrapped it over his shoulders. "A couple that lives down in Snowrest Village was having a climb up Mount Avalanche when they found you and your friends up on the summit. Celebi and Dusknoir…?"

"Yes, that's them," Grovyle replied, instinctively tightening his grip around the blanket he wore. "Are they okay?"

"Yes, hoho, they're doing just fine," Delibird smiled warmly, patting Grovyle's back, and he let out a sigh of relief that felt like a weight being lifted from his mind. "Anyway, Celebi and Dusknoir were already unconscious when they found you, but you were just barely hanging on, and mumbling a bunch, hoho!"

"Mumbling what?" Grovyle blurted out, catching himself and sitting up straight. "Did I say anything about… anything you could understand?"

Delibird shook his head, the white feathers on the penguin's head ruffling lightly as his beard moved back and forth. "I'm afraid I don't know, you had stopped mumbling by the time you were admitted into the guild. Nurse Audino was looking after you last night, and she said at one point you were half-conscious and asking about where you were, but that's all, hoho!"

"Audino… that sounds a little familiar…" Grovyle closed his eyes and tapped his claws against his chin, a few more recent memories bubbling to the surface. He grumbled softly as the memory of being half-conscious came to the forefront of his mind; that was a feeling he hadn't missed. "Well… what next?"

"Hoho, that's about it, really!" The Guildmaster hopped off of the bed, tugging on Grovyle's hand as he did so, and the lizard carefully slid onto the chilly floor, curling his toes as Delibird slowly guided him back to his own bed on the other side of the room. The sunlight was streaming in from every window behind them, and Grovyle took a deep breath as he felt the beams of light ever-so-slightly warm up the room. "Now it's probably best if you get back into your own bed and rest some more… though…"

"Though?" Grovyle said expectantly, easing himself back onto the itchy hay and wrapping himself up tightly in the woolen blanket, still sitting up as he rested against the wall. His head still ached, but it was far less than it was when he'd first gotten out of bed. Guildmaster Delibird chuckled awkwardly, pulling the lizard's head-leaf out from under his back.

"Well, hoho, you sort of interrogated me, so I was hoping I could ask you some questions as well," Delibird replied, picking up the end of his tail and holding it close. "Your two friends haven't woken up yet, at least as far as I know, so-"

A loud rapping against the door broke both of their concentration, and Delibird turned around as the door creaked open, sliding against the floor with an ear-piercing scratch, which made Grovyle wince. A large canine, with bushy tan and orange fur, poked his head into the room, his brow furrowed until his gaze landed on the two of them, his tail wagging as he saw them. He cheerfully smiled at the two of them as he trotted into the room, leaving the door hanging wide open.

"Hello there, Guildmaster, sir!" The Arcanine respectfully bowed at the Guildmaster. Delibird silently returned the bow, bending at the hip before gesturing for the apprentice to continue. "My apologies, sir, I didn't realize that one of the patients was awake!"

"Hoho, what do you need, Arcanine?" Delibird asked, stroking his beard a bit as he spoke, and Grovyle leaned forward, watching the two intently. "Is it something about one of the other patients?"

Arcanine shook his head, his smile shrinking a little. "No, I think they're still asleep in bed, sir."

"Oh, hoho, well…" Delibird trailed off, scratching his side. "Is it nurse Audino again? I know she can be a little wishy-washy, but-"

"No, sir, not nurse Audino either," The dog answered quickly, lightly scratching against the wooden floor. "It's miss Lin and mister Yama, sir, they wanted to know about how the patients were doing."

"Oh!" Delibird's eyes lit up, and he turned to Grovyle. "Lin and Yama are the couple from Snowrest Village who I mentioned before, hoho! They're the ones who found you and your friends at the peak of Mount Avalanche!"

"They are?" Grovyle said lamely, and both Delibird and Arcanine nodded. "I see… I guess they'll be happy to hear I'm up and about."

"I suppose I should go and speak with them, then." Delibird nodded at Arcanine, who turned around and squatted, letting the elderly bird clamber up onto his back. Grovyle couldn't help but smirk at the fairly ridiculous sight, though he tried to hide it as best he could. "Hoho, but Arcanine, please remember-"

"Not to go too fast this time, I know, sir, I know," Arcanine replied, grinning sheepishly as the Guildmaster scratched behind one of his ears, which flicked forward happily. "It's what you tell me every time, sir."

"Oh, hoho, before I forget!" Delibird looked over his shoulder, his black-ringed eyes peering straight into Grovyle's yellow ones. "I gave you my name, but I never got the chance to ask you what your name was, hoho!"

"…Grovyle," The grass type answered hesitantly, returning the Guildmaster's smile as he twiddled his claws together. "Grovyle, Celebi, and Dusknoir. That's us."

Delibird nodded lightly before yelping as Arcanine dashed outside of the room, the door swinging shut from the force of the momentum alone, leaving Grovyle to sit in his bed as the ward grew silent once again. Sighing to himself, Grovyle snaked his arms behind his head, sliding down the wall until he rested his head against the pillow, staring at the ceiling as the sound of bustling once again could be heard from outside. The pinewood smell wafted into Grovyle's nostrils, making him snort from the strength of the scent; he guessed it could rival that of the medicine he'd been given during the night.

"Blech…" Grovyle gagged at the thought as he tried to push it out of his mind. "I never thought something as simple as an oran berry could taste too much… this place really is a lot different than I'd imagined it'd be…"

He smiled softly as he thought of Treasure Town, wherever it might have been, if it still existed at all in this future. Bill, Rose, the Wigglytuff Guild, he could see them all clearly in his mind's eye as he thought of the grassy fields and flowing rivers he'd seen while searching for the Time Gears. Even though it had apparently been only a day since stopping Primal Dialga, his time in the past felt like it had happened years and years ago. Then they'd encountered Dusknoir, and gone back to the future of darkness, leading to them coming to…

"Wait!" Grovyle said to himself, sucking in a breath. "Dusknoir… you said that this place was called Blizzard Island in the past, right?"

Without the ghost in the incorporeal-flesh around to say so or not, all he could do was wonder, crossing his legs as he continued to talk to himself. The remnants of the Exploration Team Federation had been able to give him a little information about the past, but to forget about an entire village? A guild? How was it possible? "Is this what Dialga meant… about a time paradox?"

Dialga's words echoed in his mind as he recalled their conversation atop Vast Ice Mo… Mount Avalanche. The world flowed onward, even without his guidance to make it support the life it carried… the great paradox of a world of frozen time. "Dialga…what did you mean? Live to understand? Given the future?"

Suddenly feeling very tired, Grovyle let out a yawn, his head slightly aching again as he debated with himself. Rolling over onto his side, the lizard pulled the wool blanket a little tighter as he snuggled into the feather pillow, ignoring the slight itchiness of the hay as he breathed in and out, closing his eyes as he drifted off into a light nap. The sun still shined outside.

* * *

Clouds drifted across the bright, yellow sky as the sun hung high above the Temporal Tower, the light reflecting off of the shining blue stones as the air at its pinnacle began to shimmer and shine. In a flash of light, Dialga appeared, landing onto the ancient tiles as he let out a quiet (for a given value of quiet) growl, shaking the pillars that rose up from the floor. Thinking to himself, he turned around, staring at the steps that lead up to the five blue gears that hung from their proper place on the wall. The artifacts hummed with power, and the god of time closing his eyes, humming along with them.

"Master Dialga?"

"HM?" The dragon craned his neck to look behind him, and he nodded at the Pokemon that sat behind him. "GOOD MORNING, LAPRAS."

"Good morning, Master Dialga," Lapras said, raising a flipper in greeting. Dialga walked over to the water type, slowly sitting down in front of him as the two silently acknowledge each other's company. "If I may ask, where were you earlier? I visited the tower at sunrise, but you weren't here. Were you in the Hidden Land?"

"NO, I WAS NOT," The temporal Pokemon answered, looking out at the featureless horizon as he continued to speak. "THERE WAS SOME OUTSIDE BUSINESS THAT I NEEDED TO ATTEND TO."

"Outside business?" Lapras replied curiously, cocking his head in thought as he followed his master's eyes out towards the unnatural sky. "Master Dialga, is there something wrong with the flow of time again? There is no danger, is there?"

"STAY CALM, LAPRAS." Dialga gingerly tapped his foot against the tile. "THERE IS NO DANGER TO THE FLOW OF TIME. THERE WAS SIMPLY SOME POKEMON ELSEWHERE THAT REQUIRED MY PRESENCE. THAT IS ALL."

The two Pokemon grew silent, watching the clouds shift and shudder as they floated along, a refreshing wind blowing across Dialga's hidden domain.

"Master Dialga… does the outside business involve the Temporal Crisis that happened before?"

The dragon god of time only smiled.

"WHAT WAS ONCE SPLIT IS WHOLE AGAIN."


	2. Chapter 2

"Hello? Sir? Rise and shine, sir!"

"Mmneh?" Grovyle mumbled incoherently, blinking his eyes open as the sight of the hospital ward reappeared, and he rolled onto his back, feeling the leaf on his head trailing against the cold floor. Pushing up against the bedframe, he let the wool blanket fall off of him as he glanced at Arcanine, who grinned cheerily at him. He held a small wooden tray between his teeth, a covered plate sliding from end to end of it as the dog tried to balance it in his grasp, and Grovyle reached out to grab the other side of the tray, pulling it onto his lap as Arcanine let go of it with a breathy wheeze. "Oh… hello there."

Arcanine made a quiet gagging noise, his tongue sticking out of his mouth, before shaking his mane. "Sorry, sir! It's hard for me to carry those trays in my mouth like that, sir. Thank you for helping me with it, sir!"

"Er, you're welcome," Grovyle replied with a nod, briefly stealing a glance outside the opposite window. The sunlight had waned somewhat, but the glass remained as frosted by the snow as it had been before. "How long was I asleep?"

"Oh, you've only been napping for a couple hours, sir!" Arcanine said with a strange amount of enthusiasm, raising one of his forelegs to his head in a salute. "It's almost noon now, and I don't think the Guildmaster brought you anything when you woke up this morning, so I figured I would bring you lunch, sir!"

"Lunch?" Grovyle muttered under his breath, looking skeptically at the thin metal dome that sat atop the plate. Slipping his claws around the edges of the cover, he lifted it up and off, turning away to place it on the bedside table, next to the melted candle. Looking back, he held his breath as his eyes widened a tad. On top of the plain plate sat an odd bit of food, a couple dark tan things that looked like cones without their tips, dotted with bits of pink and brown. Next to them sat a small canteen, which Grovyle picked up and shook; the liquid inside, hopefully water, sloshed around. "This is lunch?"

"Is something wrong, sir?" Arcanine tilted his head slightly, scratching against the wooden floor. "Oh, wait, I forgot we never got a chance to ask you, sir, chestnuts don't make you sick or anything, right sir? I can bring you a different kind of poffin, if you'd-"

"Poffin?" Grovyle interrupted, picking up the still-warm pastry and looking it over, shaking it lightly as a few loose crumbs fell onto the tray. Arcanine blinked, raising his head a bit in awkward surprise as the strange gesture. "This is a poffin?"

"Um… yes, sir," Arcanine answered. "It's a nanab-and-chestnut poffin, as simple as it can get, sir. There's nothing wrong with that, is there, sir?"

Grovyle leaned forward and took a quick sniff of the food, nodding as the savory smell hit his senses, and with a small amount of trepidation, he opened his mouth and took a small nibble out of the poffin, setting it back down as he chewed, then swallowed. "This…"

"Sir?" Arcanine said, standing rigidly at attention, thoroughly confused by the lizard's odd behavior. Grovyle's eyes widened to the size of the plate his meal sat on as he beamed incredulously, taking a huge bite out of the poffin and letting the mix of sweetness, bitterness and nuttiness meld on his tongue, his mouth quickly beginning to water as he practically in haled the pastry, chomp after chomp, pausing only to take a quick swig of the fresh water from his canteen. Arcanine stepped back a bit as the dog watched the grass type go at his meal with unexpected gusto. "Slow down a bit, sir! I wouldn't want you to choke on my watch, sir!'

"M-mm, mmph!" Grovyle grunted in response, his mouth still full of food, and he gulped down some water, letting the drink wash the delicious meal down. Setting the leather bottle back onto the tray, the wood gecko Pokemon took a deep breath, still wearing a rather-dazed smile as he stared at the plate in shock; in the span of nary a minute or two, he had polished off two whole poffins and most of his water. How could food taste so good? "Sorry. I've never had something like that before."

"Never had… a poffin before, sir?" Arcanine quirked one of his eyebrows upward in confusion, sitting down as his tail began to wag back and forth. "That's… a little strange, if you don't mind me saying so, sir! Are you sure you're not just forgetting, sir? The Guildmaster said you mentioned some odd things when he talked to you before, sir!"

"Could you stop with the 'sir' business, Arcanine?" Grovyle shot back, a bit more forcefully than he had meant to as the smile left his face, and he fiddled with the leaves on his arms as the dog flinched at his words. "Please, it's just Grovyle."

Arcanine tapped his paws against the floor for a few seconds before nodding at him, smiling toothily at the lizard as he reached over and took the candle and metal cover in his hands, putting them on the empty tray before moving the entire setup onto the bedside table. "Alrighty then, si- er, Grovyle!"

"Thank you, Arcanine," Grovyle nodded back at the fire type, pulling the fluffy blanket up a bit as he rested his hands in his lap, leaning back against the wall. "And no, I've never had a poffin before. I would definitely remember…"

"Really?" Arcanine asked, though it was more of a statement than a real question. Shaking his head, he took a few steps back and gestured at Grovyle with his nose. "Well, whatever, Grovyle! While I'm here, I might as well see how you're feeling!"

"How I'm feeling? I feel…" Grovyle looked himself over, moving each joint systematically as he checked from head to toe, clenching his claws into fists and curling his toes underneath the wool. His headache from earlier in the morning no longer plagued him, and his ravenous appetite for the poffins seemed to have made the nausea and bile from before fizzle out. Reaching up and stroking the leaf on his head, Grovyle licked his lips. "I feel better than I did before. There's no lightheadedness and I don't feel sick."

"I'm glad to hear that, Grovyle!" Arcanine replied, his tail wagging happily at the good news. "Do you think you could try stepping out of bed again, and walking, if you feel up to it?"

Grovyle thought briefly, smacking his lips as a trace of the nanab berry's bitter aftertaste hit the roof of his mouth. Lightly throwing the blanket onto the end of the bed, he carefully swung his legs over the side of the hay-covered frame, steadying himself as he gripped the edges of the wood. Arcanine nodded reassuringly as Grovyle let himself slide onto the floor, the lizard barely having time to shudder from the plummeting temperature before feeling an immense warmth soak into him, and he blinked, looking over at the fire type, who huffed and puffed through a goofy grin.

"You looked cold, so I'm trying to heat myself up and make the room warmer, si-, er…" Arcanine explained before trailing off, the dog's fur bristling as the chill seemed to simply disappear, and Grovyle let out a pleasant sigh, taking a few steps towards the window. "It was snowing a bit this morning when you woke up, so you must have been pretty cold when the Guildmaster found you!"

"Hm." Grovyle let his arms fall to his sides as he slowed to a stop in the middle of the room, the empty beds leaving him a little unnerved. He glanced at the door out of the corner of his eye. "Arcanine, where are Celebi and Dusknoir?"

"The other patients? Oh, your friends, Grovyle?" Arcanine quickly corrected himself, padding over to the grass type as he continued to speak. "The Guildmaster had each of you put into a different ward of the guild, so that you couldn't wake each other up if any of you started making a big loud racket, hehe!"

"I see…" Grovyle stifled a chuckle, thinking back to when he'd woken up the previous night; Even if Arcanine found the idea funny, the Guildmaster hadn't been too far off of the mark. "Do you know if they're awake yet?"

Arcanine shook his head, his smile wavering a bit. "Sorry, I don't really know, Grovyle. Probo and Solo are the ones who got assigned to watch them today, and I haven't really gone to talk with either of them yet."

Grovyle opened his mouth to respond, but Arcanine hopped onto his hind legs, his eyes brightening as his tail began to wag enthusiastically. "Oh! But since you're awake, I could probably show you around the guild, and then we could ask together, right?"

"You mean… like a tour?" Grovyle stood up straighter, putting his hands on his hips, and Arcanine nodded vigorously. The wood gecko rubbed a claw under his chin, thinking aloud. "Hmm… I guess that would be a good idea… especially if I can walk."

"Who said anything about walking around the whole guild, si- Grovyle?" Arcanine replied, and Grovyle sucked in a breath as the dog bumped him into the air, and he winced as he landed on top of the fire type's fluffy back, getting winded in the process. "Like a former guild member used to tell me, 'why walk when you can ride'?"

"Former guild member?" Grovyle asked hesitantly, taking a few deep breaths as Arcanine walked over to the door, carefully biting onto the doorknob, twisting it, and letting the door slide open, scratching against the floor. "What do you mean by former?"

"Oh, she graduated from the guild a few years ago, heh," Arcanine said with a chuckle, walking out into a small hallway before turning around and closing the door behind him. Grovyle shuffled around, letting his legs hang over the sides of the fire type's belly as he looked around the hall. Another window sat in the wall, the same as the one opposite his hospital bed, while the other walls were adorned with plain white tapestries that hung from the ceiling, decorated by odd colorful shapes.

As Arcanine stepped past them, Grovyle leaned towards the sheets of fabric. Upon closer look, the tapestries seemed to be covered with simplistic drawings and words – he guessed that they were probably drawn by Pokemon that the guild had treated. "Anyway, the door to the north and the door at the west end of the hall lead to the other wards, so I'll show you around the rest of the guild, and then we can check on your friends when we circle back, okay, Grovyle?"

"Alright… I'll follow your lead, then, Arcanine," The wood gecko said, and as he thought back to his meeting with Guildmaster Delibird, reached forward and slipped his claws into the fur close to one of the dog's ears, scratching gently. He smiled as the ear flicked forward as if it had a mind of its own, and Arcanine broke into a sudden gallop, forcing Grovyle to hang on, wide-eyed, to Arcanine's thick mane, struggling to keep himself from tumbling backwards. "W-woah!"

As Arcanine skidded to a stop and ran out the middle door, he began to trot around the guild, scampering south until the two of them ended up in a small, plain room, dotted with stools near a large set of double doors. Despite the warmth of the fluffy fire type, Grovyle could feel the chill coming in from the crack in the doorway. Arcanine didn't seem to notice, his ear still flicking as he spoke. "This is the main hall! The guild meets here every morning and every evening to do the daily cheers!"

Turning his head, Grovyle glanced at another door set across from the exit, a small sign hung on the doorknob that read 'out'. The lizard grunted. "Who's 'out'?"

"Oh, that's the Guildmaster's quarters, Grovyle," Arcanine answered cheerfully. "That's where he and nurse Audino stay! The Guildmaster must be out on a house call down in the village, or maybe he decided to talk to miss Lin and mister Yama over lunch."

"Lin and Yama… Guildmaster Delibird said that they were the ones who found us on the mountain," Grovyle murmured as Arcanine obliviously continued onward, moving down a set of stairs dug into the floors close to the wall. Patting the dog's ear to get his attention, Grovyle spoke up. "But Arcanine, if I've been asleep for a few hours, why would they still be talking?"

"Sshshshshsh!" Grovyle recoiled, startled, as Arcanine shushed him with a quiet hiss. The logs had given way to dark stone, with light being shed from multiple candles hanging from the walls. A clatter could be heard through a thick flap that dangled from the wall. "Some of the guild members are still asleep down here!"

Looking around the new room, Grovyle noticed a few Pokemon that snoozed away in beds of their own. A Pansear, an Abra and a Phanpy could be seen underneath their blankets, the latter snoring loudly through his trunk, and Grovyle frowned at Arcanine, giving him a look. "They're sleeping through that noise."

The dog balked. "W-well… okay, fine, we don't have to whisper! This is where we all sleep, Grovyle. Pansear, Abra and Phanpy work during the nighttime, and Probo, Solo and I work during the daytime."

"Arcanine, is that you, maybe?" A strained female voice called out, Grovyle tensing up at the new sound, but the fire type walked through the room over to the doorflap, which rose as a paw pushed it up into the air. Out walked another Pokemon, this one pink with a cream-furred belly. Her grey eyes shot fully open in shock, her expression only overshadowed by the white beret she tried to keep from falling out between her large ears. "My goodness, Arcanine! Maybe you should bring the patient back to his bed? He shouldn't be up now, maybe!"

"He was up and about earlier this morning, nurse Audino! You can ask Guildmaster Delibird when he gets back, ma'am!" Arcanine answered mildly, smiling as he looked back at Grovyle. "Grovyle, this is nurse Audino, the one who watched after you last night. Nurse Audino, this is Grovyle!"

"It's good to meet you, ma'am," Grovyle greeted the older Pokemon, holding out a hand, which she took, shaking anxiously as she peered over her shoulder.

"Yes, yes, good to meet you too, and maybe your two friends if they're awake?" The nurse replied questioningly, but seemed to shrug the question off with a cry as she let go of Grovyle's hand, stumbling backwards and through the doorflap. Grovyle furrowed his brow, confused, but Arcanine moved onward, leading him into the next room. "Oh dear, the water's ready! Hmm, maybe I should add some rawst… or maybe a little-"

"And this is the kitchen, Grovyle!" Arcanine stated.

"I… see." Grovyle looked around the room, filled with pots, pans, and all sorts of odd bits of equipment that he didn't know the names of. Much of it was full of liquid that fizzed, boiled or steamed, going from bottle to bottle. "It… looks busy."

"It is busy, and maybe more if you're going to hang about," Audino scolded the two of them with a wag of her paw, the pink Pokemon grumbling as she vigorously stirred the contents of a pot. "Please, Arcanine, just take him back to his room, maybe. I don't care if he's able to get up and walk, he's not fully healed yet, and neither are the two others! Now go on, go, maybe!"

"Alright then, ma'am!" Arcanine replied, but before Grovyle could protest, Audino had hopped away from her work, waving a spoon at them as she shooed them out of the kitchen. Grovyle grimaced as he was pelted by droplets of water that flew off of the utensil, gasping as one stray drop landed in his eye, which he scrunched shut. Arcanine ran through the guildmember's bedroom and back up the stairs to the main hall, and both Pokemon exhaled in relief, the dog laughing to himself. Grovyle rubbed at his eye, blinking a couple times as the pain subsided.

"Is she normally like that?" The wood gecko couldn't help but ask as they moved back through the halls, and Arcanine nodded.

"Yeah, she's a little, eheh, uptight, maybe?" The fire type snickered, his paws scratching against the floor as the two of them made their way back to the medical hall, and Grovyle reached out to open the door this time, earning him a grateful nod from Arcanine. "Behind the kitchen was our storage room, but we don't go in there very often… and that's just about everything, Grovyle!"

"That's it?" Grovyle said, leaning back against the dog's fluffy tail, its tip still wagging as he walked towards Grovyle's ward. The tour was that short? "It's… smaller than I was expecting, I guess."

"Smaller?" Arcanine asked. "What do you mean, smaller? We're no bigger than the Wigglytuff Exploration Guild back on the mainland, or so I've heard, Grovyle!"

"The Wigglytuff Guild!?" The lizard exclaimed in shock, wobbling precariously as he jerked forward, and he yelped as he lost his balance, falling onto the floor with a thump. Grovyle stared outside the bright window as Arcanine left away from the doorknob, walking over and sticking his face above his charge's. "It still exists!?"

Arcanine quirked an eyebrow upward as he continued to stare at Grovyle, his incredulous expression saying everything it needed to. "Wow, the Guildmaster was right when he said your memory was kinda iffy, huh? Of course the Wigglytuff Guild's still around, Grovyle! How could it not be?"

Grovyle felt his breath catch in his throat as he tried to register the very idea. Wigglytuff Guild. Treasure Town. The mainland. It was all still here. Bill and Rose… he, Celebi and Dusknoir… they really had changed the future… "Hey, Grovyle, what's wrong? Say something, you're looking all surprised!"

He fainted.

* * *

Guildmaster Delibird exhaled heavily into his mug, his breath wispy as it made contact with the piping-hot tea. Glancing out towards the foggy stretch of water, he silently watched the dock workers fumble and stumble about, the Pokemon hitting their knees against boxes and slipping and falling on their backsides as they unloaded their ship's cargo – or tried to, at least. The elderly bird frowned deeply as one of the workers let out a loud curse, and he took a sip of his drink, letting the mild hint of mint soothe his senses before returning his gaze to his friends, smiling through his disdain. "Before I forget, how is Erin doing, hoho?"

The Mienshao that sat across from him shook her head, taking her small reading glasses and setting them onto the table before reaching over and taking a small slice of apple from a platter, her thin, graying fur pulled back to keep from falling onto the freezing furniture. "She's doing well, Guildmaster. She sent us a letter just a couple weeks ago, saying that she and her friends were going on a mission somewhere… up north, I think."

"And she said she misses us and she wants to come and see us soon, like she always does, eh, hun?" A Hariayama added, the heavyset Pokemon licking his fingers clean as he shuffled around on the floor, too big for any proper seat. "Glad yer still asking about her, Guildmaster. We haven't gotten to talk in a while, so I was wondering if you'd forgotten about her, eh?"

"Hoho, I doubt anyone at the guild could forget someone with as much boundless energy as she had, hoho!" Delibird laughed, staring into the grey, overcast sky as his mind drifted to the ever-cheerful rescue graduate, quieting himself as he smiled in fond reminiscence. "If you don't mind me saying, she truly was your child, Lin, Yama."

"Yeah, yeah…" Yama replied as a soft blush formed on his cheeks. "It's what you always tell us."

The trio of Pokemon settled into a comfortable silence, the three heads turning as a yell came from the docks; the Poliwrath captain of the longship finally emerged from his cabin to berate his inept sailors, his string of abuse interrupted when he himself stepped into a thin layer of freshly-fallen snow, sliding across the deck and smacking face-first into the floor. Delibird winced as the loud crash sounded above the rising wind.

"So…" Lin began, the gentle smile vanishing from her face as she peered at the Guildmaster, her bright blue eyes began to fill with concern. The red-feathered penguin waved a flipper at her, cutting the elderly mink off, and she nodded slightly.

"They're alright, hoho," Delibird answered the unspoken question, a small grin on his beak as he took another sip of his tea, and he inwardly sighed in relief as the two Pokemon outwardly sighed in relief. "Grovyle actually woke up this morning before you came by, and he was walking and everything, hoho!"

"Really? Dear, they're alright!" Lin said, beaming as she briefly turned towards her husband, scooting a bit off of her stool. "That's wonderful news!"

"What about the other two, eh, Guildmaster?" Yama asked, leaning back as he rested against his hands. "Yer having yer guildmembers look after them too, right?"

"Hoho, there's been no news on them yet, but they seem to be just fine as well," Delibird replied, taking an apple slice and popping it into his mouth, chewing slowly. "I had Grovyle go ahead and lie back down before I went to go greet you, hoho! Hopefully the others will be awake before long."

"I'm amazed that they're recovering so quickly…" Lin remarked as a frigid breeze kicked up, the sound of waves crashing against the shore beginning to drown out the sailors nearby. Picking her reading glasses back up and returning them to her nose, she looked at Delibird curiously. "They were completely unconscious when we found them… they must be powerful to be able to just get up and walk the next day. I wonder what ran through their heads to make them climb up Mount Avalanche with no supplies!"

"No kidding, hun!" Yama slapped his thigh, his eyes narrowed in confusion as he reached over to take a handful of fruits. He let out a short grunt when his wife lightly smacked his side, and he gingerly pinched a single slice between two of his fingers. "Maybe they were in a rush to see the sunrise from the top or something, eh?"

"Yes, hoho… it was strange," The Guildmaster said quietly, holding his mug of tea between both flippers. Taking another sip of the brew, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tapping his feet against the ground.

"Were you able to talk with Grovyle at all, Guildmaster?" Lin asked hastily, the mink pushing her reading glasses up as they slid down her nose a bit. She continued to speak when Delibird nodded. "What did he say? Were you able to find out what they were doing all the way up there?"

"Ahh… unfortunately, no, hoho," Delibird stroked his beard thoughtfully, sighing in resignation as he sat up straight. "I didn't really get to ask him anything myself before you arrived, though he had quite a lot of questions for me, hoho!"

"Surely you were able to learn about who he and his friends were, if you're calling him by his name, Guildmaster," Lin pointed out, looking out towards the sea of fog that rose above the icy ocean. "Please, you can trust us. We put our daughter in your care… and we put those three young explorers in your care as well, because we know that we can trust you."

The words struck Delibird hard, leaving him silent for a few minutes as his gaze moved from Lin to Yama, back and forth. The Mienshao kept her eyes focused outwards, while the Hariyama leered at him with an expectant look, neither one willing to let the matter rest. Slowly, but surely, the Guildmaster smiled wryly, shaking his head as he downed the rest of his tea, and he slammed the mug back onto the table as he gulped the drink down, the hot liquid scalding his throat.

"Hoho… very well then, I'll tell you what I know," Delibird conceded, his dark-ringed eyes sparkling with withheld curiosity as his two friends looked back at him. "I will say that there's not much I can tell you, but I'll tell you anyhow, hoho!"

"Yer a good Pokemon, Guildmaster," Yama stated plainly, shifting his weight until he was relaxing on one warm, the other one hanging from his knee. "Thank you."

"Go ahead, Guildmaster." Lin hunched forward, sitting both literally and figuratively on the edge of her seat. Delibird took a deep breath, looking at the empty fruit platter atop the table.

"When I found him, he was looking out one of the windows, and he seemed very nervous, asking me lots of questions at once before I helped him onto a nearby bed, hoho," The red penguin started to explain, thinking back to the encounter he'd had with the lizard not a few hours prior. "He didn't really seem to know what happened up there either, and when he talked about climbing up Mount Avalanche, hoho, for some reason he called it Vast Ice Mountain!"

"I dunno, Guildmaster, that sounds like a pretty good nickname for the place, eh?" Yama joked, laughing heartily, and both Delibird and Lin broke into peals of good-natured laughter as well, the former stifling his chuckles as he nearly wobbled off of his stool. "Though to yer credit, yer more of the medical expert than I am, hah!"

"Yes, hoho, well, anyway…" Guildmaster Delibird coughed into his beard as the three of them settled down, the strong winds easing off a bit, and the bird caught a peek at the sailors out of the corner of his eye – they'd finally managed to unload whatever cargo had come in from the mainland and were heading further into town, the docks returning to their usual tranquility. "We started over and I introduced myself as the guildmaster of the guild here, which seemed to just confuse him further, hoho. I mentioned that he was mumbling some during the night and he asked me if he'd said anything understandable, hoho. I wonder if his memory was affected from his exhaustion."

"Mumbling?" Lin perked up, blinking behind her glasses as she cocked her head in thought. "Now that you mention it, Grovyle was mumbling when we found him atop the mountain, too…"

"Hoho, yes, you told me before," Delibird replied, reaching down to grab his bag-like tail.

"Yes, though I didn't think he said anything understandable… Yama, dear, you said you heard something, didn't you?" The graying mink turned to her husband, who had switched back to his sitting position, his legs crossed and his hands on his sides. The large fighting type rolled his eyes upward, thinking. "What was it you thought he said? Something about…"

"Dialga!" Yama yelled with a snap of his fingers, shrinking back a bit as he noticed the odd stares that both Lin and Delibird gave him, and he chuckled sheepishly, reaching back to scratch behind his head. "Eh, heh, sorry about that. But yer right, hun, I heard him say something as clear as that morning was, and he said 'Dialga'!"

"Dialga?" Delibird repeated, frozen in his seat. "Dialga… and Grovyle, Celebi, and Dusknoir…"

The four names sent a chill down everyone's spine as the three Pokemon quickly pieced the puzzle together, the all-too-familiar tale running through their minds. Lin was the first to speak, carefully taking her reading glasses into a trembling paw. "G-Guildmaster… y-you a-aren't t-thinking…"

"Lin… Yama…" Delibird said in reply, an anxious edge in his voice as he dropped to a whisper. "You found them… yesterday?"

The husband and wife both felt their eyes widen to the size of platters, Delibird's implication not lost on them for a second. Yama swallowed dryly, unconsciously reaching over to the empty fruit platter to grab some food, only pulling back when he realized there wasn't any left. "Lin… hun… we forgot in the panic... we were climbing up the mountain yesterday because it was-"

"Guildmaster, sir!"

The yell broke their combined train of thought, and Guildmaster Delibird looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing as he shuffled around on his stool. As Arcanine galloped up to the three of them, the dog took a few gulps of air before bowing his head. "Good morning, miss Lin, mister Yama. Guildmaster, sir?"

"Yes, Arcanine, go ahead, hoho!" Delibird forced a laugh, trying to remain calm as the fire type nodded a greeting at his two elders. "What is it now? I thought I asked you to keep an eye on Grovyle while I was talking with Lin and Yama?"

"Yes, sir, Guildmaster, sir," Arcanine nodded hastily, smiling awkwardly as he pawed at the icy ground. "Well, sir, he woke up again and he ate his lunch, and he seemed to be feeling better, so I decided to give him a tour of the guild, sir."

"Hoho, that was a very prudent thing to do," The red penguin reassured the apprentice, hopping off his stool and patting the flustered dog's side. Lin and Yama got up from their seats as well, the latter sliding a handful of coins into the Guildmaster's empty mug.

"Well, um, sir, he said that the guild was smaller than he thought, and I said it wasn't any smaller than the Wigglytuff Guild, sir," Arcanine continued, the words stopping the Mienshao and Hariyama in their tracks, and Delibird's head shot up. "And he asked if the guild still existed, so I told him of course it still existed, and then he just fainted!"

Delibird took a step backwards, mind sent reeling, and both Lin and Yama let out quiet gasps. "Ho… hoho… oh dear."


	3. Chapter 3

"Number one! Be right polite!"

"What?" Grovyle jerked forward, returning to his senses as he turned his head atop the pillow, staring briefly at the source of the noise. The door to his room was closed and the light coming in from the window had turned into a warm orange, and the lizard pushed himself up as he hopped out of the bed. He immediately regretted stomping onto the floor, yanking the blanket from the bedframe and enshrouding himself in it, and he shivered at the lack of warmth, suddenly quite aware of Arcanine's absence as he glanced around the empty ward, his teeth chattering as he spoke to himself. "B-b-back h-here a-a-again?"

Quickly, he recalled the last conversation he'd held with the fluffy fire type, and his mind drifted onto Treasure Town and the Wigglytuff Guild. Furrowing his brow, the wood gecko inwardly berated himself for his behavior – stupid, stupid, stupid! Of course the town and the guild would still be around. Dialga himself had told him at the mountaintop that Bill and Rose had been able to change the future. Despite his thoughts, the wood gecko still found himself confused by the very idea.

"Number two! Telling lies isn't wise!"

Looking towards the door, Grovyle slowly stepped towards it, letting himself out as he listened to the chorus of cheering voices that came from further into the guild. He allowed himself a small smile as he stopped to wait for the guild to finish; whether it was out of some sort of respect or nostalgia for his adventure, he wasn't sure. He could hear Guildmaster Delibird's voice rising above some of the other Pokemon, the combined effort enough to ever-so-slightly shake the walls.

"Number three! No aid goes unpaid!"

"They're still not as loud as Loudred was, though," Grovyle mumbled to himself, pulling the wool blanket tighter as he tiptoed towards one of the other doors. As the guild's voices dropped to a lower volume, he turned the knob on the northern door, slipping inside and shutting it as quietly as he could. "Now to see about Dusknoir and…"

As he turned around, his eyes were quickly drawn to the blob of pink that stood out clearly against the muted browns of the hospital room. He took baby steps across the room, forcing himself onto the freezing floorboards, as he drew closer to his friend. "Celebi…"

The little legendary had been nestled into the large bed, her head and arms peeking out from underneath her own blanket, which rose and fell alongside the girl's breathing. The hugeness of the bed in comparison to her small size made for a fairly ridiculous sight, and Grovyle found himself trying to stifle a round of snickers as he stood and stared. Reaching out with one of his arms, he gingerly took one of Celebi's hands into his, wiggling his claws a bit as he leaned over and rested his arm on the bedside table. Now if only there was something that he could sit down on… something closer than the bed, of course.

Taking a more conscious look around the room, the grass type glanced outside of the window closest to the two of them, spying the sight of water far to the north of the building. A cleared sky, alongside the waning sparkles on the surface of the sea, completed the serene evening scene. If he squinted, he thought he could see another landmass, albeit very far, far away. "I wonder… is that the mainland?"

"Ptuun…" The soft moan snapped his attention back to the fairy, and he watched in silence as Celebi pulled a face, let out a massive yawn, and peeked one of her eyes open. The green orb flicked about before settling on him, and he gently squeezed her hand. "Gro… Grovyle…"

"I'm right here, Celebi," Grovyle replied, letting out a quiet breath of relief as the pink Pokemon rolled herself onto her side, hesitantly opening up her other eye as she stared at the wood gecko, and as she yawned again, she laughed a bit at her own tiredness. The pleasant sound made the lizard smile, and he looked back out the window, idly reaching up with his other hand to scratch and itch on his nose. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm… okay, I think," Celebi said, slowly scooting up as she pushed herself into a sitting position against her pillow. "Where are we? Is this… the Frozen Island?"

"I think it's called the Blizzard Island…" Grovyle sighed, and he turned his head to look at Celebi as she let wriggled her hand out of his, scooting out from under her covers and tentatively stretching out her limbs. "We're in the Delibird Guild."

"A guild? Like the Wigglytuff Guild?" The fairy whispered lightly, her eyes going wide in surprise as she hovered into the air. Her flight didn't last long, though, as she quickly flung her arms around herself, her two antennae drooping as she began to shiver. Grovyle blinked, briefly glancing at his blanket before looking back at his friend. "How did we get here? I remember… I remember you suddenly collapsing, and then…"

"There was a couple from a village nearby that brought us here, or so the Guildmaster said," Grovyle replied, gesturing towards the door with his head. That reminded him – had the guild finished its meeting? He and Celebi had been talking for a good few minutes… "I woke up earlier this morning and had… a couple naps afterward. The guild's cheer woke me up again…"

The wood gecko trailed off as Celebi let out a quiet gasp, and the duo looked out the window, watching the sky go from orange to dark blue, a multitude of stars beginning to wink into existence. Celebi's expression of wonder sent an amused expression onto Grovyle's face, the quiet only broken by the low hum of the pink Pokemon's fluttering wings. He narrowed his eyes, trying to find the far-off landmass, but it was to no avail, and he settled for his friend's soft-spoken reaction. "You got to see this during your adventures in the past…? I'm… a little jealous."

"You know, we get to see it every day now," Grovyle pointed out, and Celebi absently nodded in response. "The future… from the Pokemon I've talked to, Bill and Rose really were able to stop the future of darkness."

"Those two really pulled it off, didn't they?" Celebi smiled, clasping her hands together as she turned towards Grovyle, who exhaled gently, his warm breath turning to mist as it found the chilly room. "And we helped out too, right?"

The grass type was silent for a moment before answering. "Yeah. We helped them just as much as they helped us."

"But…" Celebi finally seemed to notice the missing member of the trio, and she scanned around the hospital ward, her head tilting lightly in confusion. Her friend watched as she flittered from one end of the room to the other, returning to his side after a moment. "That's right, Dusknoir! Where is he? I was wondering why he hadn't made some kind of comment yet."

"Arcanine… er, one of the other guild members," Grovyle hastily explained, suppressing a yawn as he spoke. "He said that the Guildmaster had set the three of us up in different parts of the guild in case we woke each other up."

The fairy seemed to laugh to herself at this, and the lizard frowned, tapping his foot against the floor. "What?"

"W-well, if we weren't supposed to wake each other up, I guess you waking me up means it didn't really work, did it?" Celebi giggled brightly, and Grovyle flinched before smiling sheepishly, looking at his feet in mild embarrassment. The pink Pokemon floated a short ways away, whispering to herself. "Not that I minded, though…"

"Huh?"

"O-oh! Nothing, nothing," Celebi replied alongside a short loss of altitude, and Grovyle took a step forward, letting his blanket fall to the floor as he readied himself to catch the small girl. However, she was able to pull herself back up as quickly as she'd begun to fall; she yawned again as she returned her gaze to her friend. "I think I'm just tired, that's all."

"Don't overwork yourself." Grovyle folded his arms, reaching up to brush his head-leaf as he tried to think. He shivered slightly, and squatted down to get his blanket before all the heat had left it. "I don't think the guild realizes why we were at the mountain. For all they know, the three of us just fainted from exhaustion-"

The two of them jumped in dampened shock from a repeated tapping on the wall, and they turned towards the old-fashioned log wall as it slowly swung open. Grovyle let go of the breath he was holding as Guildmaster Delibird waddled his way into the room, holding his tail in his flipper as he nudged the door closed. The bird ruffled the feathers of his beard, chortling as he caught sight of his two patients standing side by side near the window. "Hoho, up again, are we? And not alone, either, hoho!"

"Good evening, Guildmaster," Grovyle greeted as he bowed his head slightly, and he stole a peek at Celebi, who mimicked his movements. As the old bird walked over to them, the wood gecko took a moment to swing his blanket back over his shoulders. "Your cheer woke up me, so I decided to peek into the other wards."

"Yes, I can tell, hoho!" Guildmaster Delibird remarked with an oddly jovial dryness, and he craned his head back to take a good look at the pink Pokemon that floated above him, smiling broadly as he took in the sight of the fairy. "How are you feeling, miss Celebi? I'm Delibird, the master of this guild, hoho."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Delibird." Celebi bowed her head again, floating to the bird's level so she could reach out and shake one of his flippers, which seemed to please the elderly Pokemon greatly as a wide grin wormed its way onto his beak. The guildmaster dropped his tail, shaking his head with barely-restrained mirth as he clapped his flippers together.

"Oh no, hoho, the pleasure is the guild's! It is always an honor to provide aid to a legendary Pokemon, hoho…" Guildmaster Delibird stopped himself before he could begin to gush, and he coughed loudly, trying his best to return to a more professional decorum. Celebi looked away in embarrassent by the penguin's behavior, and Grovyle hid his face underneath his blanket before smirking at the older Pokemon's goofy antics. "Though I do ask that you try to stay in bed for tonight, at least? It's only been a day or two since the three of you explorers were brought in, after all, hoho!"

"Um, Guildmaster?" A soft-spoken voice called out, and the three Pokemon looked to the door, a small, floppy blue trunk peeked in from outside. "I've brought in the medicine you asked for, but I didn't realize that the patient was awake. Should I come back or…?"

"Hoho, that's fine, Phanpy, just leave the cart by the door," Delibird nodded firmly, stroking his beard as the ground type gently closed the door, and the Pokemon sighed, turning back towards his two patients as both yawned in tandem. "Now, I suppose you two will be wanting to get some sleep?"

Grovyle and Celebi glanced at each other for a moment before the former turned towards the elder, a mild look on the lizard's face. "Er, Guildmaster, I was wondering if we could just check in on Dusknoir."

The ice bird's beak dropped slightly before snapping back up, and he nodded, picking up his tail with a quick movement. "Oh, hoho, of course. I suppose if you two have finally woken up, he should be coming along shortly, hm?"

The three Pokemon slowly made their way out of the room and into the main hall, Celebi slipping through the door as Grovyle slid it shut, and she stopped when she saw the cart outside her room, stacked high with numerous bottles of medicine. The moon shined dimly outside, a silver-colored sliver rising above the water, and the lack of light shrouded the guild in a dull darkness that sent both Grovyle and Celebi on edge. Delibird didn't seem to notice their nervousness, instead clucking his beak as he tapped his foot against the floor. "Hoho, I hope you'll be able to adjust to how quickly night falls here on the island. Don't worry, I'll go find Pansear and have him light up some candles for us, hoho!"

"Alright, Guildmaster," The lizard replied with a nod, shivering through his warmth as he heard the penguin open another door, the loud scratching of wood making him wince. He turned his head to look at Celebi, making sure she was alright before stepping around to face the west; at least he figured it was west, judging from the moon. "Celebi, your room's to the north, and mine's to the east. Dusknoir's this way. C'mon."

Celebi nodded in response, letting the conversation hang as she flew over to him, and they cautiously sidled up to the final doorway. The wood gecko reached out to turn the knob, forcing himself past his nervousness as the click of metal rang out, and he pushed into the third ward, the hum of his friend's wings providing some small sense of comfort as the door creaked open.

The western ward was, despite the darkness, no different from its sister rooms, with beds lining the walls and freezing windows letting in a meager amount of light from the outside. Dusknoir lay in one of the beds close to the door, and Grovyle and Celebi quickly hustled over to him, watching the Pokemon's body rise and fall with his soft breathing. The lizard smiled at the sight, this time for the opposite reason; Dusknoir's body was so large that he had simply been laid on top of his blanket, his arms limply falling from the edges of the bed and dragging on the floor. The smile dropped from his face as he realized just how cold he must have been.

"He looks… peaceful," Celebi put plainly. Grovyle had to agree; Dusknoir seemed to sleep quite soundly for someone who'd had a crisis of conscience just a few days earlier. "Then again, we were always enemies, so we can't really say for sure…"

"He's probably needed more time to recover than either one of us," The wood gecko replied as he took hold of the corners of his blanket and tossed it over Dusknoir's body, covering him up as best he could. Celebi wordlessly moved to the other side of the bed to help, tugging on the corners of the wool. "I guess… he's the one who deserves to rest the most, if anything."

For a few moments, the two Pokemon stood solemnly at the ghost type's side, thinking to themselves as they watched their newfound friend snooze the night away. Dusknoir seemed to shift in his sleep, rolling onto his side and grunting from the warmth of the cover, and Grovyle and Celebi sent each other a mutual smile.

"Weh-heh-heh!"

The laugh cut through the quiet like a blade through a berry, their muscles tensing up as the smiles dropped from their faces. Grovyle looked around the hospital ward, eyes narrowed, and tried to keep his teeth from chattering as the cold nipped at him again. "That was…!"

Celebi shut her slackened jaw as she spun around, her green eyes glowing slightly as she tried to find the source of the noise. "Sableye?"

Whatever it was, it was drowned out by the squeaky hinges of the door as it was opened up again, and the pair of Pokemon snapped their heads towards Guildmaster Delibird, his feathers lit up somewhat by the wavering candles that he and Pansear held up into the air. "Hoho, you know, I also hope you'll be able to stop disappearing on me like this!"

As Pansear scampered over to Dusknoir's bed, Grovyle and Celebi walked over to the Guildmaster, the mild light from the candle enough to illuminate their faces, and the elderly penguin tilted his head in confusion at his patients' concerned expressions. "Oh? Is there something wrong, Grovyle?"

"Huh? Er, oh, no…" Grovyle shook himself out of his trance, looking over his shoulder at Dusknoir before turning back to Delibird. "No, nothing's wrong, Guildmaster."

"Hmm…" Delibird stroked his beard thoughtfully as he furrowed his brow – Grovyle could tell that the old Pokemon was thinking deeply as he continued to stare at them, like he was trying to see through his little white lie. Celebi yawned. "Did Dusknoir wake up while I was gone, hoho?"

"No, he's still asleep, Guildmaster!" Pansear blurted out from across the room, and Celebi nodded gently, smiling at the red-feathered penguin as she hovered about.

"…hoho, very well then," Delibird said after a second, smiling as he held up his candle and gestured towards the open door, and Grovyle and Celebi made their way past him out into the hall. "Keep an eye on him, Pansear! Would you close the door behind me, hoho?"

"Will do, Guildmaster!" Pansear waved at the three of them as they left, and Guildmaster Delibird picked up his tail in his free flipper, smiling when he heard the door shut behind them. Celebi let out a yawn, flying over to Grovyle's shoulder and letting herself sit down, leaning against her friend's head as she rested. He himself was rather weary, dragging his feet somewhat as he walked through the hall.

"You two look tired, hoho, and good thing, too," The Guildmaster remarked, ambling his way to the next door as he spoke. "The more you sleep, the faster you'll heal, and that means you all can go back to exploring faster, hoho!"

"Yeah… I am feeling pretty tired, I guess," Grovyle said with a nod, glancing at Celebi out of the corner of his eye. She was already asleep. "Sleep well, Guildmaster."

"See you in the morning, then, hoho!" The bird replied with a chuckle.

"…yeah…" Grovyle whispered, and he smiled. "…see you in the morning."

* * *

"Weh-heh-heh! Huh-!"

A Sableye dashed his way away from the guild building, the moonlight reflecting off of his jeweled eyes as his feet pounded through the thick snowdrifts, and he felt himself lose his balance and trip off a nearby rock, sending him spiraling down the trail. He grunted and yelped as he bounced off of the walls of the incline, eventually crashing at the foot of the hill, a mess of tangled limbs and a crumbling ball of snow. With a sputter he poked his head out from the pile, spewing more snow from his mouth as he scratched at his tongue, frowning unhappily. "Bleh! Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh!"

Swiftly bounding out of the slush, the impish Pokemon ran through the sleeping village, past sturdy log cabins and newly sprouting plants as the branches of an icy forest swallowed him up. The cold bit at his fingers and toes as he hopped over bushes and slid under roots, grinning wildly as he made his way through the trees. The town vanished from sight as the Sableye sped deeper and deeper into the woods.

"So that's where they got taken to!" He muttered under his breath, wheezing hard as he sprinted headlong into the mystery dungeon without a care in the world. "I'd better tell the others!"

After a few minutes of solid running, the Pokemon slowed to a jog, his head spinning around the inky forest and peering through the darkness for his companions, the snow underfoot growing thinner as the trees grew thicker and thicker. Rubbing at his hands to keep them from going numb, Sableye called out in the forest with a yell. "Hey, you guys! I think I finally found them!"

A rustling in the thicket later, and five more sets of gemstone eyes and shining teeth emerged from the shadows, assaulting him with a barrage of questions; if they were projectiles, the Sableye would have found himself utterly bowled over.

"Are you sure?"

"Master Dusknoir? And Grovyle and Celebi?"

"On the other end of the island?"

"What are they doing all the way over there?"

"Weh-heh-heh! Pipe down, all of you!" The first Sableye took charge of the small crowd, jumping up to a tree branch and hoisting himself on top of it, and the other five looked up at him from below. "There's some big ol' village over there, and a guild, too! All three of 'em were there, and-"

An angry growl interrupted the Sableye's meeting, the trees shaking from the reverberating sound, and the first Pokemon let out a cry as he fell to the floor with a thump. With wide, fearful eyes, the six Sableye looked into the darkness, their teeth chattering as chills ran down their spines. A steely pair of eyes stared back.

"S-scatter!" The leader ordered, and they split off in all directions, leaving the forest silent.

* * *

"Grovyle? Meal call, Grovyle!"

"Yeah, I can hear you, Arcanine." Grovyle took his eyes away from the morning window, watching intently as the doorknob jiggled around, and as the dog trotted into the room, a small pink fairy followed him, grunting a bit as she tried to help keep a food tray from toppling over. Grovyle sat up and brought his legs to his chest in surprise, gasping lightly as he felt his joints cricking from disuse. "Celebi? You're already awake too?"

"Don't worry, Grovyle, we've got it!" She said through clenched teeth, and she let out an 'oop!' as she bumped into the side of the bed. Arcanine's eyes widened as he accidentally shoved the end of the tray into the girl's stomach, and the plate tumbled over onto the bed, the metal cover bonking the little grass type's head on its way down. Grovyle lashed out to catch the toppled plate, keeping it pressed snugly into the bed as the metal cover clanged onto the floor. "Uff… well, I guess we didn't get it."

"Celebi…" The wood gecko sighed, shaking his head, and he lifted the plate from the blanket, his eyes lingering on the poffins and canteens that sat upended on the wool. "You could have just asked me to help."

She fluttered back up in a daze, rubbing her forehead a bit as she plopped down on the opposite end of the bed, and reached over to take one of the poffins, nibbling hungrily on it. Grovyle did the same, smiling contentedly as the same taste from before hit his tongue. Arcanine moved around the frame, picking up the tray and cover before setting them on the bedside table, looking at the two Pokemon out of the corner of his eye.

"I wonder if missus Lin and mister Yama will come to visit you two again today," The fire type thought aloud, sitting down and tapping his paws against the wood as his tail wagged cheerfully. "They and the Guildmaster seemed pretty concerned when they got back to the guild yesterday afternoon, Grovyle!"

"They did?" Grovyle cocked his head. "Why?"

"Oh, well, uh, hehe…" Arcanine replied, smiling sheepishly. "I did go and get them after you fainted."

"Grovyle! You fainted?" Celebi's head swiveled towards her friend, and the wood gecko busied himself with his food to avoid the legendary's stern gaze. "Who told who not to overwork themselves yesterday?"

"E-er…" Grovyle stuttered as he tried to come up with a response, and Arcanine laughed.

"Hey, Arcanine?" Someone's voice carried from across the hall, and the dog perked his head up, leaning over and peeking out the doorway. "Could you go and get another food trap from nurse Audino?"

"We don't need another one, Solo!" Arcanine called back, and Grovyle and Celebi scooted around to look at the fluffy fire type in curiosity. "I had her prepare a double-sized one for these two, Pansear!"

"I wasn't talking about the other two patients, Arcanine!" The faraway Pokemon replied. The words made Grovyle and Celebi take pause, and Arcanine's eyes lit up – the two grass types barely had time to prepare before the dog ran out of the room with a strong rush of air. Celebi took pause, gulping down a sip of water before fluttering off the bed, smiling brightly as she watched the wood gecko swing his legs off of the bed.

"Shall we get going, then?" She asked, and Grovyle shot her a thumbs up as he took a few steps towards the door, rubbing the leaves on his arms as the outside chill seeped in. The two strolled into the hallway, Celebi closing the door behind them, and entered into the western ward, a small green blob levitating out of their way as their eyes landed on their companion.

The large, black ghost floated just inches above his bed, holding his food tray in one hand and silently eating his meal with the other, and his yellow-lined stomach letting out a gurgle, seemingly satisfied that it was finally receiving solid food again. Dusknoir raised his head as he heard their footsteps, the expression on his face (or his eye, at least) placid as he nodded at them in greeting. "Grovyle. Celebi."

"Good… morning, Dusknoir," Grovyle said after a moment, walking across the room and stopping at the edge of the bed. Celebi flew over, her wings humming as she lowered herself onto the nearby table next to the melted candle, and Dusknoir looked at his food thoughtfully.

"Yes… that's right. It is morning, isn't it?" He murmured, twisting around to look outside his window, his suspicions confirmed by the gentle light that reflected off of the snow outside. His single red eye narrowed at the sight. "So… the future has been changed after all. This guild must still on the Frozen Island, then."

"I think you said it was Blizzard Island in the past, right?" Grovyle reminded, and the ghost nodded in reply. The wood gecko stroked his head-leaf a couple times, drumming his two toes against the floor as he continued. "Some villagers below brought us here."

"Yes, the Solosis told me already." Dusknoir gestured towards the psychic type nearby, who quietly busied himself with retrieving the empty meal tray before bringing it out of the room, leaving the trio of Pokemon alone to talk. Celebi briefly jumped up to look out the window, peeking shortly at the pure white fluff coating the ground outside, before returning to the table. "He said you two woke up yesterday, and that the Guildmaster will want to speak with all of us now that I've awakened."

"I guessed he'd want to ask us all some questions sooner or later…" Grovyle said, rubbing his chin. "I asked him a lot of questions last morning, and he said he wanted to ask me some as well."

"Grovyle, do you think… he knows that we fought Primal Dialga? He didn't seem to act like it…" Celebi remarked, putting her hands on her hips as she lightly kicked the candle holder on the table. "It doesn't seem like anyone realizes what went on at the Vast Ice Mountain."

"The Pokemon here call it Mount Avalanche," Grovyle said, and his eyes widened slightly as he looked at the fairy, a faint memory of teetering at the edge of unconsciousness rolling to the forefront of his mind. "And… I think I remember hearing the two Pokemon who rescued us, and they didn't seem to see Dialga at all, or even hear the battle."

"So they don't know that we're… from the dark future?" Celebi asked, cocking her head in confusion as she tried to figure things out. "But that doesn't make any sense! When Dialga was talking to us… after we didn't disappear… didn't he say that a higher being restored the future?"

"Yes, I remember Master… Dialga, speak those words to us, as clear as crystal," Dusknoir confirmed, turning around and floating down to the floor. "He said that he took responsibility for his actions and would support this new world."

"New… world…?" Celebi whispered under her breath, twiddling her hands as she slowly rose into the air, floating over to Grovyle. "I wonder…"

The wood gecko thought back to Dialga's parting words, and he looked at Celebi, the gears in his head beginning to turn. "Celebi, before I fainted, Dialga said something about a 'time paradox of a world of frozen time'. You know more about time than either Dusknoir or I… do you think that it could be nobody remembering the dark future?"

"I think… it's a stretch, but I think…" Celebi trailed off, looking from Dusknoir to Grovyle before continuing. "It could be that the future is actually-"

"Hey, you guys?" Arcanine's voice cut through their musing, and the trio turned towards the door, watching as the dog stepped into the room. "The Guildmaster said he'd like to talk to you!"

Grovyle glanced over his shoulder at his companions, who nodded at him. "…alright, Arcanine. Lead the way."

* * *

"Master Dialga?"

"YES, LAPRAS?"

"You've been somewhat melancholy today."

"…"

"If you don't mind my asking, is this related to the outside business you mentioned before?"

"…I AM ALRIGHT, LAPRAS. I AM JUST DWELLING."

"…dwelling on what, Master Dialga?"

"EVENTS THAT… COULD HAVE HAPPENED, IN ANOTHER TIME, IN A DARKER PLACE."


	4. Chapter 4

"Guildmaster Delibird? You wanted to see us?"

"Oh, hoho! Yes, indeed I did!" Guildmaster Delibird said a hello to his three patients as they entered into his quarters, running back and forth to light the low-hanging candles on the walls. Grovyle and Celebi helped Dusknoir squeeze his way through the entrance, and the wood gecko took the moment to peer around the room. Two figures sat on a bed at the back wall, and he curled his toes as he stepped onto an old, faded rug laid over the log floor. The old penguin tittered to himself as he watched Dusknoir finally make it past the doorframe. "Hoho! I normally visit my patients while they're in their wards, so my apologies for the tight fit, my friend!"

"I think that's twice now yer having to say that, eh, Guildmaster?" A gruff, but good-natured, voice replied, and Grovyle did a double take as he glimpsed the heavyset Hariyama at the back of the room. At his side was a bespectacled Mienshao, who smiled gently at the other Pokemon's joking remark. The Guildmaster idly stroked his beard, choosing not to comment. "Haha, maybe you'll finally think about expanding yer doorway! No reason to keep just one out of 'em all small, eh?"

"Oh, hello there!" Celebi said in surprise, smiling brightly as she waved at the two unfamiliar Pokemon. Dusknoir quietly let his arms drop to his sides as he took in the room, and Grovyle stroked at his head-leaf, the mild warmth from the candles not enough to make the room feel remotely comfortable. "Are you members of the rescue guild as well?"

"Oh, no, dear," The Mienshao laughed softly to herself, hopping off of her seat and walking over to the fairy, her short sleeves rolling over her paws as she reached out to shake the girl's hand. "My husband and I are good friends of the guild, though."

"Erhem, hoho… my apologies for interrupting, hoho," Delibird coughed a bit to get everyone's attention, and the older lady stepped back to let the penguin speak. "First thing, ah… Dusknoir, I'm glad to see that you're finally awake, hoho!"

The ghost stared blankly at the Guildmaster for a moment before he looked at the rug, folding his arms defensively as an awkward silence settled over the room. "Thank you for the concern."

"Yes… well, it's what anyone would feel in my place, hm?" The red-feathered elder broke the beat, peering to his sides as he gestured at the other pair of Pokemon with his flippers. "I may as well introduce my other visitors, hoho! Grovyle, Celebi, Dusknoir, these two are Lin and Yama. They're the ones who brought you to the guild a few days ago, hoho!"

"So you two were the ones who found us?" Grovyle blinked, gazing at the two fighting types. Celebi's wings hummed as she hovered around, struggling to shake the Hariyama's hand, and Yama eventually poked out a single finger, gingerly lifting it up and down in her grasp. "I was wondering if we were going to meet you sooner or later."

"It's good to finally make your acquaintance, Grovyle," Lin said, and their arms met with a firm handshake, the wood gecko's claws wrapping fully around the aging woman's small paws. The graying Mienshao pulled the young grass type into a sudden hug, and he felt himself receive a couple pats on the back for his time. Celebi laughed at the sight. "And of course, yours as well, Celebi and Dusknoir."

"It's good to meet you, ma'am!" Celebi agreed with a friendly nod. Grovyle's response was only a breathless grunt, though it was no less positive than his friend's was.

"So, heh, Dusknoir…" Yama began with a playful chuckle, pounding over to the ghost and clapping a heavy hand on his shoulder. "You seem pretty spry now that yer up and awake! You were pretty heavy to carry down the mountain though, hah!"

"Dear, please!" His wife scolded him, letting go of Grovyle as she stepped over and swatted his side, and the Hariyama laughed, dodging out of the path of the blow. Dusknoir reacted placidly, patiently tapping a finger against his forearm at the couple's antics. "Dusknoir, he meant no offense, of course."

"Now now, hoho, settle down, everyone!" Guildmaster Delibird quickly retook the reigns of the conversation, and the quintet of Pokemon turned their heads to stare at him. Lin and Yama swiftly calmed themselves down, bowing at the old bird respectfully before moving back behind him and sitting down on the rug. When he was satisfied, Delibird seated himself as well, and motioned for the others to do the same. "Well, now that we've had all the introductions, I suppose I should get to the real reason why I called you three here, hoho?"

"You're wanting to ask us some questions, right?" Grovyle put plainly as he lowered himself to the floor, and Delibird ruffled his beard, taken aback. "You were going to ask me questions yesterday before you got interrupted, but now that everyone's awake…"

"Right, hoho!" The Guildmaster confirmed with a short nod, stifling his laughter as he tapped his feet against the fabric. Grovyle crossed his legs as Celebi slowly fluttered to the floor, stomping her feet a few times before sitting down; Dusknoir remained standing, as much as a ghost could technically stand. "I'm… hoho, not really sure where to start, but I suppose I'll go with something simple. Who are you three, exactly? I know your names, but are you explorers of some sort?"

"Yeah, it's not very typical for Pokemon to be climbing up Mount Avalanche unless yer on some kind of job," Yama added, patting his knees as he spoke up, glancing over at his wife. "But there wasn't anything interesting up there, right, hun? No bag, no badge, no outlaws, no nothing."

"That's right. The three of you were the only ones up there, and there wasn't hair nor hide of anyone else." Lin nodded in concern, taking the moment to rub at her glasses with a sleeve. "And we didn't find any supplies with you, either. Did you three climb up the mountain all by yourselves?"

"E-er…" Grovyle stuttered, looking away to hide the panicked expression that had suddenly appeared on his face. For all the discussion about getting asked questions sooner or later, he had no idea what to say for an answer. He nervously glanced at his friends out of the corner of his eye – Dusknoir simply continued to stay silent and wait, his single red eye fixing the wood gecko with a deadpan expression.

"None of us are explorers from a guild, if that's what you mean, Guildmaster," Celebi thankfully picked up the slack for him, and he reached up to sheepishly stroke his head-leaf, listening closely to his friend; coming up with a cover story was probably the best option, especially since everyone else had no idea what happened to them. "I guess you could say that the three of us are self-taught, hehe!"

"Hoho, so you're freelancers, are you? That's certainly a rare sight around here!" Delibird replied with a warm smile, twisting around to pull his tail over to his side. "Though that makes things a bit more confusing, hoho, given that freelancers can't take jobs from the guilds! Lin, did anybody in Snowrest have something that needed doing?"

Lin shook her head slightly, wearing a bemused frown as she stared down her glasses at the little fairy across the room, noticing Celebi's clearly flustered face. "No, Guildmaster, I don't think so, or else they would have asked around the village first, and then they would have come to you."

"Yes, hoho, not to puff my own feathers out, but it doesn't seem like any of the villagers would hire a freelance exploration team to do something for them." Delibird took a fleeting look at the ceiling for a moment, letting out a soft 'hmm' in thought. Grovyle nervously stroked the leaves on his arms, peering back at Celebi, who clasped her hands behind her back in embarrassment. "Though, I don't mean to disrespect you three, hoho! Did you come here from the mainland?"

"Yes." Dusknoir's low voice cut through the chatter easily, and everyone turned their heads toward the ghost. The Guildmaster nodded at him to continue, and Grovyle narrowed his eyes – what did Dusknoir have in mind? "We were helping some young Pokemon from the mainland."

"Y-yeah… yeah, that's right." Grovyle slowly said, and Dusknoir let the wood gecko speak. "They needed us to get something for them at the mountain."

"Get something from the mountain?" Yama quirked a confused eyebrow at the trio as he fell down sideways, lazing about as he drummed his fingers against his leg. "What something could yer pals want from there, eh? There's nothing there that you can't find on the whole of the Southern Continent!"

"It's kind of a long story, sir, but we were chasing after another Pokemon that was climbing the mountain," Celebi explained. Grovyle sighed inwardly as the fairy liberally sugarcoated their mission. "Some friends, from the mainland, needed our help with him as soon as possible, so we had to get to the top as soon as we could, or else…"

As the grass type trailed off, everyone went quiet, a tense pause hanging in the air as the party of Pokemon mulled Celebi's words over. Yama pushed himself back to a sitting position as he and his wife glanced at each other, the two of them sharing a troubled look. Guildmaster Delibird simply sighed, bowing his head and mumbling something inaudible under his breath. Grovyle looked over his shoulder at Celebi and Dusknoir – the pink-hued grass type fiddled nervously with her antennae, and their large, ghostly companion had curled his hands into tight fists, his so-called eyebrow furrowed thoughtfully.

"You…" He spoke icily. "…don't believe us, do you?"

"You three…" Lin replied with an almost imperceptibly-soft tone of voice, getting up and inching towards them. Grovyle uncrossed his legs as the Mienshao approached, ready to rise at a moment's notice. The older Pokemon seemed to notice his movement, and she smiled reassuringly at him as she squatted down and stared straight into his eyes, removing her glasses as she did. "Grovyle, when we found you up on the summit, you were just barely conscious, and Yama hear you mention… Dialga."

Grovyle's jaw dropped as his mind filled with dread, and Celebi fluttered into the air in dampened shock; Dusknoir floated backwards until he was pressing up against the wall, causing the hanging candles to flicker and shake, the metal tapping against the walls. Guildmaster Delibird wobbled around as he tried to get up as well, but Lin thrust a paw at him, and the red penguin eased himself to a stop, nodding at the lady to continue speaking. Lin briefly looked from Grovyle, to Celebi, to Dusknoir, and back again.

"You're… the ones from the story about Primal Dialga, aren't you, dears? The ones who wanted to change the past so that you could stop…" She stopped for a moment, tapping a paw to her chin as she racked her brain. "The future was full of darkness, you were looking for the Time Gears, and the planet was… er, it was…"

"Paralyzed…" Grovyle answered, cutting the woman off mid-sentence, and she refocused her attention on him. "The planet was… paralyzed."

"So you were chasing up the mountain after Primal Dialga, eh?" Yama added, scratching the back of his neck in confusion. "But wait, yer supposed to have been… erased from existence, or something. That's how we heard it, at least! How'd yer tails end up snoozing around here, eh?"

"Hoho… Yama, didn't you hear what Celebi said? She said it was a long story!"

Guildmaster Delibird's chipper remark slashed through the tension like a blade through fruit jelly, and the red-feathered penguin quickly found himself on the receiving end of a five-pronged stare. Beaming warmly, he nudged his head towards the pink fairy in question before speaking again. "Hoho, please, everyone, relax and sit down. This Guild is supposed to be a healing place, and you five are so uneasy that you're making me a little too nervous, hoho!"

Slowly but surely, the elderly rescuer eased his two friends and three patients back down onto the rug, the hum of Celebi's wings coming to a stop as she landed, and Dusknoir let out a sigh before letting himself fall fully onto the floor, leaning against the wall with arms folded. As Lin and Yama moved back behind the Guildmaster, he grinned, fluffing his beard a bit.

"Grovyle, Celebi, Dusknoir… would you tell us what happened at Mount Avalanche?" Delibird asked, putting emphasis on every word that left his beak. Grovyle looked at Celebi, who gave him a small smile and a nod, and Dusknoir, who simply rolled his eye dismissively.

"Alright… alright." Grovyle said twice, steeling himself the second time. "We'll tell you everything."

* * *

By the time Grovyle neared the close of their adventure, he was pretty sure that he, Celebi and Dusknoir had been speaking for what felt like an entire day, even if a quick sideways glance told him that the wax had only just begun to drip down the sides of the candles. He felt his eyes widen at the sight – even with his experience finding the Time Gears in the past, getting used to time truly flowing again was going to be hard. Delibird, Lin and Yama had thankfully held their tongues through the whole of the story, letting the words flow uninterrupted. "And then… well, we were still there. We hadn't disappeared."

"Dears… I'm so sorry," Lin said gently, her voice wavering as she closed her eyes, regarding the trio with a sympathetic frown. "It's hollow to say I had no idea, but…"

"It's alright, ma'am…" Celebi nodded gratefully at the older Mienshao, the fairy's eyes shimmering with unshed tears, and she wiped bashfully at her face, trying to brush them away with a short laugh. "I think… getting it out in the open helped."

"But that still didn't really answer my question, eh?" Yama remarked with a grin, catching everyone's attention. "You beat Primal Dialga, the planet's paralysis ended, and then when you were gonna get erased, you didn't. So like I said before, how'd yer tails end up snoozing away on the mountaintop?"

Dusknoir floated forward a bit, folding his arms as he stared at the floor, thinking hard as he tried to recall what had happened. "I'm not entirely sure myself. One moment, the three of us were awake and perfectly fine. Celebi abruptly fainted, and I remember things going dark soon afterwards."

"I tried to stay awake so I could ask Dialga what was happening, so I guess that's why I was half-conscious when you found us…" Grovyle began, curling his legs up as he absently stroked his head-leaf. Dusknoir's head perked up with renewed interest, staring at him intently, and the wood gecko continued. "I told Celebi a little bit, but let me try and remember everything that Dialga said…"

"Hoho, don't strain yourself to remember," Guildmaster Delibird hastily said, leaning forward eagerly. "Let it happen however it needs to."

"He said…" Grovyle scrunched his eyes shut, turning a blind eye to the old penguin's advice as he tried to think. "Something about us battling in a darker time and place, and something about a time paradox… though I didn't understand how he explained it."

"What did he say about the paradox, dear?" Lin asked. "Maybe if we all put our heads together, we can figure it out."

"I remember that a lot better. He said that 'time doesn't just start and end' and that even though the planet was paralyzed, 'the world continued to move'…" The grass type listed off the three things that bubbled to the top of his head, tapping his hands together in tandem with each statement. "And when I told him that I didn't get what he meant, he said I had to 'live to understand'. Then he vanished, I fainted, and I guess Lin and Yama found us shortly afterward."

"Well, that's real helpful of him, ain't it, hun?" Yama smirked as he looked over at Lin, and the Mienshao reached up to push her glasses back up her nose before waving at her husband. "Cryptic!"

"No, I think I have an idea of what it means," Celebi piped up enthusiastically, floating into the air a bit, and Grovyle's eyes flashed for a moment. That's right, she had been saying something before they all got called here… "It's… well, hehe, it's kind of hard to explain-"

"Just do your best, Celebi," Grovyle reassured her, and she smiled at him, looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"W-well, you see…" The fairy started with a stutter, shyly turning her head away from everyone else's gaze. "When the planet was paralyzed, a lot of things just… stopped happening, right? Water didn't flow, the sun and moon didn't rise, and food didn't grow. They had just frozen in place, time had stopped for them."

"That's right, but Dialga said that time doesn't just stop…" Dusknoir interrupted, only to be cut off with a wave of the grass type's hand.

"I wasn't finished yet!" Celebi said in a pouty huff, and the ghost sat back, gesturing at her with a shake of his head. She exhaled and inhaled before continuing. "But time hadn't stopped for Pokemon! Grovyle and Dusknoir... and me… and all the other Pokemon in the future could walk and talk and age, right? So time was still flowing for us!"

"That's... but how…" Grovyle blinked in understanding before grunting in confusion, trying to say something multiple times before just giving up and resting his head in his hands. So time had stopped… but time… hadn't stopped? Was that even possible? He let out a dry chuckle at his own bewilderment. "…Celebi, I think that only made things even harder to understand."

"Hoho, so time can be choosy, can it?" Guildmaster Delibird remarked with his hooting laugh, getting to his feet and stretching his stiff limbs, pacing around the room as he checked the candles.

"Grovyle, you and the rest of the Pokemon investigating the planet's paralysis just focused on finding out how to change the past and stop it from happening at all…" She explained, looking at the wood gecko, and he nodded. She turned to Dusknoir. "And Dusknoir… well, I guess Primal Dialga couldn't really explain how time works, could he?"

"No… not particularly," The ghost snidely replied.

"Grovyle… Dusknoir… time was flowing, at least in some way, in the future, which is why you could go back to the past at all…" Celebi dropped her voice to a whisper. "And when the past was changed, the future where the planet was paralyzed got erased from existence, like everyone thought it would."

The words sent a chill down Grovyle's spine as his eyes grew to the size of platters, and he shivered in the silence that followed. Delibird yelped as the candles rattled in their holders, and a noisy bump let everyone know that Dusknoir had stopped hovering, the ghost having fallen to the floor in shock. Lin and Yama kept still, looking from the trio of young explorers to each other, waiting patiently for more.

"But… if time hadn't stopped…" Grovyle muttered. "And the future really did disappear… then where are we?"

"Celebi, if I might butt in?" Lin asked, and both the wood gecko and the fairy looked at her, the latter dropping to the rug with a short nod. "We found you two days ago… dears, that was the anniversary of when Bill and Rose saved the world. The Temporal Crisis, I think most call it now."

Grovyle's mouth flattened as he finally got the message. Treasure Town still existed. Nobody remembered anything about the future. Blast it all, it seemed so obvious now, how hadn't he seen it before!? "…you mean…"

Dusknoir was similarly stunned. "This can't be…"

"Guildmaster?" Celebi slowly looked over to the red-feathered penguin, who stood at attention with a kind smile. "How many years has it been since the… Temporal Crisis? If I'm thinking right, it should be-"

"Seven years, hoho!" Delibird chortled, patting his beard. "Oho! So you mean that seven years passed while the planet was paralyzed, and that's why you're here now, hoho!"

"Seven years…" Lin murmured under her breath, rubbing at her eyeglasses with her sleeve. "I can't imagine how horrible that must have been for you…"

"Then don't!" Celebi's strong statement shook everyone out of their thoughts, and she kicked at the rug, beaming at the old Mienshao. "It's… all over, right? We're here, we're alive, and… the future of darkness never happened. We… we've got a chance to live our own lives now!"

"Hoho!" Delibird squawked in realization, and Celebi, Dusknoir and Grovyle looked at him in confusion. "Erhem, sorry, but that reminds me of the last thing I wanted to discuss with you three! We need to talk about what you're going to do once you're free to leave!"

"Oh yeah, yer right!" Yama added, getting up and lumbering over to the three explorers, the candles shaking from the force as the Hariyama fixed the Pokemon with a cheery wink. "That's the official reason yer having Lin and I here today, eh, Guildmaster?"

Pushing the memories of time and darkness out of his mind, Grovyle looked over to the three older Pokemon, reaching up as Celebi grabbed his hand, helping the wood gecko get to his feet. Together, they helped Dusknoir rise off of the floor, and the ghost folded his arms as he hovered low, glaring suspiciously at the fighting type that stood before him. "What is 'official reason' supposed to mean?"

"Hoho, well, you three didn't have any supplies or money up on Mount Avalanche, remember?" Guildmaster Delibird reminded them with a wave of his flipper, and both Grovyle and Lin nodded in confirmation. "And considering your circumstances, you also don't have a place to stay, correct? With all due respect, you can't live in our wards, hoho, those are meant for patients!"

Grovyle reached back to sheepishly toy with his head-leaf, briefly thinking about Sharpedo Bluff before shaking his head at the idea. "I… guess we don't."

Lin and Yama stepped forward, smiling brightly at them, and Guildmaster Delibird stroked his beard as a warm chuckle escaped his beak. "Hohoho, exactly! And when we realized that, miss Lin and sir Yama offered to take you in while you three get settled!"

"Really?" Celebi blurted out, her eyes lighting up happily, and Grovyle smiled as the pink fairy flapped over to Lin, clasping her hands together as the Mienshao nodded at her. "That would be a big help! Thank you, sir, ma'am!"

"We'd like for you three to stay for one more night so we can be sure that you're fighting fit, but once tomorrow morning arrives, you'll be free to go, hoho!" Delibird explained, planting his flippers firmly at his sides. "If you'd like, you can all stay in one ward this time, hoho!"

"…Hmph." Dusknoir only grunted, and Grovyle looked over his shoulder at his friend; the ghost seemed preoccupied, staring absently at the far wall. Letting him have his thoughts, the grass type hesitantly nodded at Delibird, a satisfied expression on the penguin's face.

"That… would be alright, Guildmaster," He said, and he gestured at the bird's flipper with his claws, extending his hand as the two shook. "Thank you for all your help. We appreciate it."

"Well, I guess now that we're all okay and happy, it's probably time for us to go, eh, hun? Hahaha!" Yama laughed heartily, stepping past everyone as he opened the doors and made for the guild's exit, taking a step through the frame as he ducked his head. After a few moments, he chuckled in embarrassment, waving his arm at the five other Pokemon in the room. "Er, hah, can I get a push?"

Celebi giggled quietly, and Lin sighed.

* * *

The sound of a door gently opening made a pair of yellow eyes flick open, the telltale scraping of wood breaking Grovyle out of his slumber, and the wood gecko slowly sat up, yawning through his nose as his vision adjusted to the darkness, and he slid onto the floor, being careful not to make any more noise. His eyes narrowed at the unkempt bed nearby, both blanket and pillow having been restlessly flung to the floor, and he tiptoed past, pressing his lips together as his teeth began to chatter from the cold. A large figure levitated just outside, staring out the frosty window. A series of clouds had begun to drift in from the sea, blocking out the crescent moon and the reflection it cast on the wavy water.

"Dusknoir," He whispered, and the ghost reached up to idly fiddle with his collar. "Something troubling you?"

His friend was silent for a moment, tapping a finger against his folded arms before responding. "Grovyle… what will happen to us now?"

"Huh?" Grovyle lamely replied, scratching the base of his head-leaf in confusion, and he walked up to Dusknoir's side, folding his arms as well and turning his head to look at him. "What do you mean?"

Dusknoir sighed, pinching his forehead before dragging his hand down his face, his red eye flaring brightly in the darkness. Grovyle shivered from the cold, but stood his ground, looking back outside the window. "I mean… what will happen to us now? You and Celebi have gotten the future you wanted. And… Dialga is no longer… my master."

"Well… we're going to go and move into a new place tomorrow," Grovyle said plainly, tapping his toes against the floorboards as he watched the storm cover up the sky. The grass type sucked in a breath as white flecks fell from the gray clouds above, and within a few minutes he and Dusknoir were witnessing a powerful blizzard that pounded against the walls, the glass fogging up from the freezing temperature. So that was snow… "And then… er…"

He stumbled over his words, trying to think of things to do in the days to come, but the implications of Dusknoir's question fully hit him; the ghost narrowed his single eye and nodded, shooting the grass type a smug expression for a split-second. "I… I don't know."

"Exactly." Dusknoir turned around and floated a few paces away, the snowstorm piling down outside with a mighty rumble. "Even if we're allowed to stay with Lin and Yama for a time, the three of us cannot live that way forever."

"What's got you moping about this, anyway, Dusknoir?" Grovyle remarked with a furrowed brow, looking over his shoulder to stare a hole into the uncharacteristically-melancholy ghost's back. "I thought that you, of all Pokemon, would be happy to get a second chance-"

"And you think I'm not happy!?" The ghost growled loudly with a clear note of venom, swiveling around to glare angrily at his friend, hands curling into fists as he audibly exhaled. Grovyle took a step back, crouching defensively in anticipation, but his tension quickly faded as Dusknoir let out a weary, frustrated sigh. They both looked at the shadowy floor, the silence broken by the snowstorm and Dusknoir's heavy breathing. "I… I don't know what to do, Grovyle. I don't understand…"

Understand…? Wait… "Live to understand…"

"What are you muttering now?" Dusknoir lifted his head up, speaking softly as he hovered back over, tilting his head curiously. The grass type smiled, thoughtfully stroking the leaves on his arms.

"Dialga told me that I needed to live to understand… I thought he was talking about the time paradox, but," The wood gecko said, staring back at the ghost. "Maybe if you or… I, want to understand… we just have to live, I guess."

Dusknoir's eye narrowed in confusion, shooting back in deadpan, "That's not very helpful."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Grovyle shot back with a knowing look, and the ghost sighed, shaking his head. "For now, we should just focus on getting settled in. We're leaving the guild tomorrow, so-"

"Oh, goodness sake!" Audino's voice interrupted the conversation, and the pair's heads snapped towards the southern door, where the nurse stood with a candle in paw. Her cheeks were puffed out in annoyance as she scolded the two Pokemon. "You two are maybe going to be the death of me! What are you doing out of bed this late?"

"S-sorry, nurse Audino," Grovyle grinned sheepishly, teeth chattering in full force as he stepped towards the east ward, fumbling in the darkness for the doorknob. "We were just having a talk, we'll return to our beds now…"

"Maybe you will, maybe you won't!" The normal type grouched, reaching up to push her beret back up between her ears. Lightly jabbing the candle at the pair, she herded them back into the ward, closing the door behind them. "Good night, and maybe you'll rest well!"

Dusknoir wordlessly made his way to his bed, retrieving his blanket and pillow before letting himself lay flat, his eye dimming as he tried to fall back to sleep, and Grovyle hopped onto the pile of hay that sat in his own spot, the dried grasses rustling as he tried to get comfortable. Pulling the covers over his shoulders, he yawned quietly, catching a quick glimpse of Celebi before closing his eyes; the fairy slept with a smile glued to her face, the sight of which made him grin in amusement. Had she really dozed through his and Dusknoir's entire conversation? Had she slept through the snowstorm, even? Was she always that heavy of a sleeper, or had he just never noticed…?

The idle thoughts did the trick, and the wood gecko soon found himself lost to dreamland.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Hey, twinkle-two-toes! C'mon, we're burning the non-existent daylight here!"_

"_Yeah, yeah, I can hear you, Bill!" Grovyle shot back at the human, and the tall figure grinned cheekily, vanishing into the undergrowth before the wood gecko could say anything else. With a roll of his eyes, the grass type leaped to the nearest branch, bounding from tree to tree. "Are you sure that this is the right place?"_

"_Positive," His companion replied with a shrug, and Grovyle sighed in mild irritation at the sound of the human's backpack shifting around; he'd learned that shrugs meant 'maybe, maybe not' in human body language. Or at least, this human's body language. "See, look at that big glowy thing up ahead! I bet you an apple to an oran berry that we're getting close!"_

"_Don't make promises that our supplies can't keep." Grovyle pounded hard into the air, grabbing onto a twig and swinging off of it before landing. He curled his toes as he splashed into the pool of water, its surface unmoving as he stood up. Bill pushed through the trees into the small clearing, taking a deep breath as he looked around. Despite the planet's paralysis and the constant darkness that came as a result, the area seemed almost sunny, no doubt because of the luminous circle that glowed in the middle of the lake._

"_Woah…" The human shook his hair out of his face, casually slipping his hands into his pockets."Talk about a snazzy living space, especially for a mystery dungeon."_

"_Yeah…" Grovyle was similarly lost for words, wading through the pool towards the beam of light. As he reached the blindingly-bright center of the lake, he put his claws to his mouth and called out into the forest. "Celebi? Are you there?"_

"_Hey now, don't let every half-crazed Pokemon here know where we are until we're both ready," Bill chided lightly._

"_If this isn't the right place, it's not really going to matter, isn't it?" Grovyle folded his arms, sending the human a friendly stare. Bill silently pressed a palm to his chest, raising his head with a mock-indignant smirk._

"_Guys! You made it!"_

_The pair turned to look at the trees just beyond the spring, and Grovyle's heart pumped in excitement as a small pink fairy flittered into the open, a broad smile on her face as she regarded the two. "I'm glad you were able to find this place! You aren't hurt, are you?"_

"_No, we're fine, Celebi," The wood gecko responded, awkwardly stopping mid-sentence as the girl wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace. It ended quickly as she went to greet his human friend, and he stroked up at his head-leaf. "A-are you alright?"_

"_I'm okay…" Celebi blushed a bit, letting go of Bill and looking away shyly. "Oh! But I was able to find something out while I was gone!"_

"_Really?" Bill grinned, reaching out and poked at the grass type's heated cheeks. She recoiled, pouting at the human. "Well, don't keep us in the dark here, pun intended."_

"_Okay… well, you see, it's about Primal Dialga… and our knowledge of the past…"_

* * *

"Arcanine, Probo, quickly maybe! I need some of that oran medicine! And maybe the bandages too. Oh! And some aspear ointment!"

Grovyle groaned, rolling over and weakly pushing the ends of the pillow over his head, the hay rustling around his body as he tried to block out the noises that came from outside the room. The walls of the guild might have been thick, but he could clearly make out Audino yelling, as well as very loud footsteps that pounded hard enough to shake the building. "What… what time is it…?"

Had he been more conscious, the still-lingering irony of his words might have gotten a laugh out of him. Instead he simply grunted as something tugged at his legs, and he defiantly curled his toes around the wool blanket as he felt it begin to slip away. Peeking one eye open, he glanced blearily at a pink figure that yanked at his covers with all the might she could muster. "Celebi… you're already awake?"

"Grovyle?" The fairy fluttered over to him, kneeling down and looking at his face, her large green eyes coming into focus as the wood gecko's drowsiness faded. "Yeah, I got up a few minutes ago. Did you sleep well?"

"No, not really," The grass type replied, reaching up and pinching his neck, the brief bite of pain enough to wake him up fully, and he pushed off of the bedframe, shaking his head-leaf a bit as he stretched out his back. Celebi helpfully pulled the blanket into the air as he extricated his legs from the tangled fabric, and Grovyle quickly looked outside the window; the sky was clear, blue and beautiful, the sun already hanging high. Was it late morning? "There was a snowstorm last night… I couldn't really sleep with it going on."

"Gruurugh…" Dusknoir groaned from across the room, and Grovyle slid onto the floorboards as the ghost floated into the air, hovering just inches above his bed. "What in the world… is that noise? Grovyle? Celebi?"

"I don't know, Dusknoir… but it's certainly a lot busier than the last few mornings, isn't it?" Celebi joked lightly, a smile on her face. Grovyle nodded in agreement, rubbing at the leaves on his arms as the cold set in. The three gathered together in the middle of the room, edging towards the door as the floor and walls continued to vibrate from the various sets of feet that ran back and forth. Grovyle fumbled with the doorknob before letting it swing open, and he peeked his head into the hall, his eyes landing on a pink Pokemon that toyed with various bottles on a cart.

"Nurse Audino?" He greeted, leading his friends out into the room, and the normal type jumped in surprise, pushing her beret back on her head as she regarded the trio of patients with a flustered expression. "What's going on? We heard your yelling when we woke up this morning."

"Oh for goodness' sake, I'm sorry, you three…" The hearing Pokemon sighed. "We got another patient in… maybe half an hour ago, maybe. I forgot you were leaving this morning. Could you maybe tell the Guildmaster that I need him to take a look now? He's in the main hall."

Celebi flapped over to the tired nurse, nodding her head happily, and Grovyle stepped over as well, offering a handshake to the rescuer. Audino gladly took it, taking a deep breath as she tried to compose herself as the legendary fairy answered her. "Of course, ma'am, we'll let him know as soon as we see him. I promise!"

A paw pointed towards the south door, and the three Pokemon nodded goodbye as they scraped it open, quickly walking down the hall. As they made their way towards the entrance, Arcanine, then a Probopass rushed past them, both carrying bags and bottles of medicine. A few other guildmembeers pushed by before the Guildmaster came into sight, flanked by both Lin and Yama. The elderly penguin held a tray of poffins in his flippers, smiling at them as they rounded the corner. "Hoho, so you're finally up, I see! I bet you're hungry!"

"Yeah, sorta," Grovyle remarked, hoping his belly wouldn't grumble at the sight of the pastries, and he popped one into his mouth before it could get the chance. Celebi smiled gratefully at the bird as she and Dusknoir took their own food, and the Guildmaster quickly went in and out of his quarters, stroking his beard now that his flippers were free of the thin wood. "Nurse Audino was looking for you."

"Oh no, it must be the explorer that Pansear dragged in from the snowstorm earlier… I supposed I'd best not keep Audino waiting, hoho," Guildmaster Delibird chuckled, squatting down to grab his tail, and he waved as he waddled off towards the hospital wards. "I'm sorry that I can't give you three a proper goodbye, hoho, but duty calls! Good luck!"

As the old bird hurried off, the three explorers turned towards Lin and Yama, and the Hariyama stomped over to them, clapping his hands on Grovyle and Dusknoir's shoulders. "Heh, you two look beat and we haven't even got to walking yet. I can tell that the blizzard kept you up, eh?"

"Yes, sort of," Dusknoir grumbled, trying to mask his tiredness underneath a droll look, and Grovyle scratched at the base of his head-leaf, smacking his lips at the lingering taste of fruit. "I suppose they happen often here."

"So, dears, are you all ready to go?" Lin asked softly, adjusting her glasses with a paw, and Celebi flapped over to Grovyle, seating herself atop his shoulder as she continued to munch on her poffin. The wood gecko smiled as he noticed the absence of Dusknoir's breakfast; he was just as fast an eater as he was, and somehow sneakier about it.

"I'm ready, ma'am," Celebi replied with a vigorous nod, smiling cheerfully. "I want to see what the future is like!"

"Well, I guess yer gonna find out soon enough, haha!" Yama laughed heartily, forcing himself through the set of double-doors as he beckoned them to follow. "Hopefully yer gonna like what you see, too!"

As Grovyle made his way through the door and outside, he tensed up, partly from the blast of cold air that hit him and partly from the surprised gasp that came from the fairy close by. The sun's glare bounced off of the freshly-fallen snow, and the wood gecko brought an arm in front of his face, blinded. His foot made a crunch as it sank into the fluffy slush, and as his eyes adjusted to the light, he took a deep breath, cold, fresh air filling his lungs. At last, the outdoors! It felt liberating, after spending a few days stuck to his bed.

"H-hey, Grovyle…" Celebi's voice was barely a whisper, albeit an irritated and amused one, and he felt two tiny hands on his claws. "Move your leaves, I want to see what's down there!"

Slowly, the grass type dropped his arm, and he looked left and right, quickly getting his bearings as he took in the sight before him. The Delibird Guild sat on a tall hill, with the sea to his left and a magnificent view of snow-covered forests and white-capped mountains to his right; below them, there was a clear bundle of brown buildings, which he guessed were cabins like the guild was. If he squinted, he could make out movement in the town… could Pokemon really be living down there? The future of darkness still felt so fresh in his memories… it was almost like a dream. Celebi sucked in a breath, trying to figure out what to say.

Dusknoir crept up on the two of them, his humming breaking them out of their trance, and he glanced at them as he floated up to their side, speaking up. "It looks similar to Treasure Town, doesn't it?"

"Huh…" Grovyle thought back for a moment. "I guess it's… sort of similar. The guild near the town."

"It's… wonderful," Celebi muttered, resting her head against Grovyle's. He let a small smile cross onto his face, reaching up to hold one of the fairy's hands. "I'm… so glad…"

"Hey, are you three gonna come with us or should I let you stand in the snow for a little while longer?" Yama's voice carried from a few paces away, and Grovyle's head snapped downward, eyeing the fighting type. He and Lin stood partway down the makeshift steps that winded down the hill, the Hariyama tapping his foot as he called out to them. "Our house is just at the other end of the village! So get yer rears in gear and follow along, eh?"

"We're coming!" Celebi yelled back, and she hopped off of Grovyle's shoulder, quickly flying over to the two older Pokemon, and Grovyle looked over at Dusknoir. The ghost floated past him, and after a few moments, the wood gecko followed, jogging down the path after his friends.

* * *

"Hey, Froslass, could I get a word with the elde-"

"Lux, wait up! You forgot to pay for-"

"Oi, cap'n, we're shovin' off tomorrow mornin', right?"

The sounds of chatter rose into the air as the band of five strolled into the village, all sorts of Pokemon running through the streets as the day wore onward. Celebi couldn't help but spin around, only keeping up with her friends thanks to Grovyle's hold on her hand. The grass type himself struggled to keep his eyes focused on Lin and Yama, catching glimpses of hardy log cabins and ice clinging to walls in his moments of weakness. Dusknoir didn't bother to hide his curiosity, looking freely at the town as he floated ahead. The hustle and bustle of the settlement was a wonder, and the cheer was infectious.

"This place is so busy!" Celebi said in awe, and Grovyle smiled as he snuck a quick peek at the fairy's excited face, her antennae whipping around as she turned a half-circle in the air. "I didn't think that there'd be so many Pokemon on the island!"

"Hah, I wouldn't get yer hopes up too big now, darlin'," Yama warned with a chuckle, turning around and stomping backwards as he winked at the legendary Pokemon. "We ain't even half a dozen paces away from the end of the crossroads, see?"

Celebi turned around, focusing on the path they'd taken, and she blushed slightly, absently bringing her free hand to her cheek. Grovyle turned as well, blinking as he saw the staircase leading to the guild still fairly close behind them. "O-oh… hehe, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little overwhelemed, is all."

"I guess you'll be wanting the two-coin tour, eh?" Yama replied, and Lin looked over her shoulder at them, sending them a sly smile.

"Dear, I think they're probably going to be needing to know their way around if they're going to be staying with us," The mink pointed out, spreading her arms out in a wavy motion. Her husband laughed in response, slapping his hand against his leg. "Snowrest isn't like the cities on the northern continent, we're still rather small. Most of us are farmers."

"By your tone, I assume that you and Yama are not farmers, then?" Dusknoir asked, folding his arms as he looked at the two fighting types, and Lin nodded, taking hold of her glasses before they could slide down her nose.

"No, Dusknoir, we're just an old married couple, passing into their twilight years." Lin sighed, her breath becoming mist as it reached the chilly air. "Anyway, I suppose while we're in the middle of town, we had better show you what's what, hm? Let's see…"

"There really ain't much to say about Snowrest, for exploring, at least," Yama said, rubbing the back of his neck as he nudged his head towards the west end of the village. "Most of the services outsiders like yerselves are interested in are thataway."

"Services, huh?" Grovyle stood on his tiptoes, being careful not to slip in the snow as he looked where the Hariyama had gestured. The area seemed the same, log cabins covered in snow and ice, but he could spy signs hanging from the roofs, swinging back and forth in the strong wind. "Treasure Town had a lot of Pokemon working trades like that."

"I figure they'd have to, eh? Being near the Wigglytuff Guild and everything," Yama replied, and the wood gecko nodded. "Snowrest Village doesn't have much, though. Smithy, a peddler, a place for storing supplies and cash. That's about it."

"Combusken and Drilbur, dear."

"Oh yeah, Combusken and Drilbur! How'd I forget about him? Thanks, hun," The Hariyama's eyes twinkled with embarrassment. "Combusken runs the local inn and café. We'll probably end up going there this evening to celebrate yer first day with us, haha!"

"A café…" The image of the underground entrance to Spinda's café flashed in Grovyle's mind, and he tilted his head slightly at the memory. He'd never actually gone into the place – by the time he was on good terms with Treasure Town, there had been little time left to waste anyway. "That sounds nice, doesn't it, Celebi?"

"It sounds like a great idea, yeah!" The pink fairy piped up, happily pumping a fist in the air as she fluttered along, her cheer drawing more than a few stares. Grovyle blinked in confusion as he noticed some of the Pokemon linger on the sight of them. Did the three of them really look that odd among the rest of the explorers in town? "Thank you, Lin, Yama!"

"Aw, it's nothing too special, darlin'," Yama chuckled, reaching over to gently pat the girl's head. "I imagine that Combusken'd be happy to get some fresh faces hanging around town, right, hun?"

"Yes, I bet he'd be delighted to meet all of you," Lin smiled kindly at the three explorers, nodding at each one in sequence.

"Look out, miss Lin!"

Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir tensed at the shout, peering around the town as they searched for the source of the noise. Lin furrowed her brow, taking off her glasses in thought, and Yama turned around, flinching in surprise as he did so. "Hun, don't move!"

The heavyset fighting type lifted his wife clean off of the ground, the Mienshao gasping as she was lifted into the air, and Grovyle turned his head to look at where she'd stood. A pair of Eevee swiveled wildly through the village, sliding precariously on a large, flat chunk of ice. The grass type's eyes widened, and with a crash, he felt himself flung onto his back, his head-leaf cushioning his fall as he sank into the slush. He groaned at the wet chill that ran down his legs, and he felt two sets of paws trample onto his chest as he stared into the brown eyes of the two little Pokemon. Behind them, Celebi and Dusknoir reached out to help him onto his feet, and he took their hands into his, standing up and shivering hard enough to shake the snow off of his shoulders. "W-what… h-h-hit me?"

"Um… sorry, mister!" A peppy voice replied, and he glanced down at his feet, the two Eevee staring back up at him. One of them, gray-furred and muddy, scratched at his ears with his hind leg, and Lin stepped over as her husband set her onto the ground. "We didn't mean to hit you, mister!"

"Good morning, Silver and Bronze," The Mienshao greeted, wrapping her paws in her short sleeves, and the two foxes waved eagerly at the older lady. "Already out and about for the day? Where's Glaceon?"

"Good morning, miss Lin," The brown-colored Eevee – Bronze, Grovyle guessed – spoke, bowing his head sheepishly. "U-um, mom's still asleep. You won't tell her that we crashed into you, will you?"

"What were you trying to do, anyway?" Celebi asked cheerfully, grunting as she picked up one of the pieces of the shattered ice chunk, her wings straining to keep her airborne. The two kids turned to her as she finally gave up and plopped onto the ground, and Silver's tail wagged, an excited grin on his face. "Did you step on it by accident?"

"We're trying to make a sled!" Silver said matter-of-factly, stomping his paws in the snow to wash the mud from them. "But I guess ice wasn't a good thing to make it out of either… it's snapped in two!"

"We'll try to be more careful next time, mister and miss visitors," Bronze stared up into Grovyle's eyes apologetically, and the grass type squatted down, gingerly scratching behind the fox's ear like he had with Arcanine. "We had better get going. See you later, miss Lin! Bye, mister Yama!"

The pair of foxes quickly scampered away, vanishing among the various sets of Pokemon legs, and the group of five watched them go. Celebi waved goodbye as the kids disappeared, cheerfully spinning in the air as she sat back onto Grovyle's shoulder, and the wood gecko shuddered slightly, the warm sun not quite enough to stave off the chill from his dunk in the snow. Dusknoir tapped a finger against his forearm as he began to float forward again.

"You mentioned your twilight years before," The ghost remarked idly, and the two fighting types nodded in agreement. "And you seemed to know those children and their mother. How long has the village been on the island? I don't remember hearing about it back when… I was over on the mainland."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, it never came up in conversation with Bill and Rose, either," Grovyle added, shivering slightly as the five of them began to trek across the village. "And there was no record of any town or guild set up here in the future."

"Snowrest Village has been here since Delibird, Yama and I were still children, actually," Lin explained softly, a wistful expression on her face as she leaned into her husband's side. The Hariyama gingerly put his arm around her, and she sighed contentedly. "It's a very old village, and Delibird Guild is the only official rescue guild around these parts. Much of the Southern Continent has still been unexplored, so everyone knows about the settlements here, even if it's just the names."

"What was the last one they found, hun? Somewhere in the southeast was some place full of natives, right?" Yama asked, and Grovyle leaned forward with renewed interest, feeling Celebi's arm hook itself around his neck. "I think that was a couple decades ago! Boy, I betcha that half these kids probably weren't even born yet!"

"I guess there's a lot we don't know about the Southern Continent after all," Celebi thought aloud, lightly kicking her feet into the air as she looked around the village. "I don't remember hearing about any place other than Treasure Town from the team investigating the planet's paralysis…"

"I imagine that a lotta stuff changed in those seven years you were stuck there, darlin'," Yama replied, looking back and throwing the trio a comforting thumbs-up. "But now you get to learn all about that stuff, eh? And there's no time like now to start doing it!"

"Oh!" Lin's head perked up, and she started to walk faster, smiling warmly as she pointed out with a paw, her sleeve whipping forward from the motion. "Yama, dear, we're here already!"

Grovyle looked ahead of the Mienshao as he and his friends picked up their pace, the sun having passed from morning to afternoon. Another cabin, with a stone chimney sprouting from the roof, sat at the outskirts of the village, the sound of the lively village fading somewhat as the crunch of snow underfoot became more noticeable. That wasn't the only noticeable snow, though – the wood gecko spotted a porch buried by a layer of the white fluff, with only the doorway left unobstructed. Yama stomped ahead of everyone, roughly yanking the door open, and he gestured at Lin, Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir to go inside.

"Ladies and guests firsts, eh?" He said with a wink, and his wife laughed softly as she stepped inside. Celebi flew after her, and both Grovyle and Dusknoir said a quiet 'thank you' as they entered as well.

The living room was pleasant, if somewhat barren: a small stone fireplace was built into the opposite wall with a rocking chair sitting close by, and a pile of wood was laid at the foot of the rocks. Yama squeezed inside as Lin made a beeline for the chair, and Celebi floated around, tapping her hand lightly against a thin doorflap before peeking into the other room. Grovyle shuddered as the feeling of wet snow and cold wind left him, and he curled his toes and wrapped his arms around his body, his leaves drooping from the unwelcome chill in his bones. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked over at Dusknoir, who shivered next to him, glancing over at the fireplace. The wood gecko smiled gratefully as they walked over, leaning on each other for support.

"I imagine you'd both like to warm up some... I'll check later for something warm you three can wear," Lin murmured, less to her guests and more to herself, and she plucked a striker from near the rocking chair, gathering logs and tinder as she set about preparing a fire. Grovyle turned his head towards the doorflap as it swished around, Celebi having vanished into the side room with a flutter.

"Hey, Celebi, don't go too far away, okay?" Yama called, trudging over and sitting down as his wife began to hit a shard of flint against the steel, bright dots flying onto the ash-dusted logs. "There ain't much to see anyway, you're in the kitchen and the stairs in there go to the bedrooms!"

"Ah, there we go!" Lin's eyes flashed as the loose sticks caught the heat, the sparks snapping into a small lick of flame, and with some poking and prodding the arrangement of wood crackled to life. Grovyle sighed as the room began to grow warm, and Dusknoir fell to the floorboards with a thump, leaning back as the fireplace worked its magic. The doorflaps rustled as Celebi returned to the room, and the grass type swooped over and plopped down near her two friends.

"Ahh... it's nice to feel a real fire again!" Celebi nodded happily, resting her hands in her lap as she let the heat soak in. The older Mienshao returned the striker near the stock of wood, and with a small heave dragged her rocking chair over, sitting down near the group. "I'm still not used to the wind and weather here."

"I can't imagine you would be, dear," Lin said, looking down her nose at the fairy, her glasses sliding down her face. She pushed them back up with a slight frown. "Your future may have been cold, but the winds here can make things feel colder than they really are. To live here, you'll just have to get used to it, I'm afraid."

"It's... a lot different from when I was hunting for the Time Gears back on the mainland," Grovyle replied, thinking back as the others looked to him, and the wood gecko continued after a moment, rubbing at his arms and legs as the tingling feeling of numbness began to subside. "It's... strange. When I woke up in the guild, everything felt like it was long ago, but... now I can remember it as if I was traveling with Bill and Rose only a few days ago..."

"Well, technically I guess you were, eh? Hah!" Yama said with a laugh, slapping a hand against his leg, the loud smack reverberating around the room. "I guess that would be pretty weird for ya, now that I think about it!"

"What was the commotion at the guild this morning?" Dusknoir asked, swiftly changing the subject. Grovyle wondered if it was out of pure curiosity or if the ghost was having the same dilemma – knowing him, it was probably a little of both.

"The Guildmaster said it was an explorer that got caught in the storm last night, dear." Lin's chair squeaked softly as it rocked back and forth. "I think he was found at the edge of the forest. I'm not sure why he was here on the island, though."

"Sightseeing?" Dusknoir said dryly.

"He would probably on a job, right?" Celebi chirped, ignoring the ghost's sarcastic remark. "Is there any kind of trouble going on around here?"

"Nothing outta the ordinary, if I understand what yer asking!" Yama said heartily, falling onto his side and lazily lounging about, staring briefly at the fire as the logs began to burn through. "An outlaw here or there, a fetch request or two, maybe a bit of stolen cargo. Standard stuff, eh, hun?"

"Well, they won't be able to find out until the poor fellow wakes up, and in their care I'm sure he'll be just fine," Lin murmured, leaning back into her chair in quiet thought. "Business as usual for Delibird and the rescue guild, I suppose."

Grovyle leaned forward, shutting his eyes as he let himself nod off for a moment, relaxing among the company of his friends as they drifted into a comfortable silence. The fire snapped and popped as it ate through the wood, embers drifting into the air as the current pushed them up the chimney and outside. The grass type felt something nudge him lightly, and he cracked an eye open, looking at Celebi, who leaned quietly against his knee. He reached over with an arm to brush her antennae out of her face, and the pink fairy smiled.

"I suppose we should simply relax and wait until later, then," Dusknoir mentioned mildly, folding his arms now that he was warm and comfortable. Lin and Yama both nodded.

"You three relax as much as you like. In the meantime, I think I'm going to go down and look through the unused bedroom," The Mienshao replied, getting up out of her chair and shuffling through the doorflap, her footsteps fading as she moved downstairs. Yama watched her go before glancing at the young explorers with a cheery look.

"Well, anything else yer wanting to talk about? We're not leaving for the inn for another few hours!" He offered, moving onto his other side as he continued to lounge. Dusknoir kept silent, and Grovyle shook his head as Celebi looked over at the older Pokemon.

"I think we're alright for now," The wood gecko said, and Yama rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"Suit yerselves, then, heh!" The heavyset fighting type chuckled, closing his eyes and nodding off as he rested his head in his hand.

Grovyle heard Celebi stifle a snicker.


	6. Chapter 6

"Hello? Is anybody home? Miss Lin, mister Yama, it's me!"

Grovyle tensed up at the sound of the voice, which rose louder than Yama's snores from nearby, as well as the lively, crackling fireplace. As the wood gecko got to his feet, he gently nudged Celebi away from leaning on his leg, and the pink fairy flapped into the air, turning around to look at the doorway behind them. As the Pokemon outside began to repeatedly tap on the wooden frame, the girl turned to her companions; Dusknoir gestured at them with a shake of his head, busying himself with adding more fuel to the fire. "Well? Someone needs to answer."

As Grovyle walked towards the door, the knocking stopped and started, interrupted only by a brief cough, and the grass type cracked the door open, poking his head outside to look at the visitor. A Pelipper blinked in brief confusion, taking a few steps back as he locked eyes with Grovyle, and he patted himself down with his wings, adjusting the strap of a leather bag that hung from his beak. "Oh! Hello there, sir. I guess I must have the wrong house, sorry."

"Lin and Yama's house?" Grovyle said, and the Pelipper nodded. "No, this is it, you've got it right."

"It is? It's not often that someone else answers their door," The bird replied, hopping up and down a bit to keep his feet from getting cold, and the wood gecko relaxed slightly, reaching up to stroke his head-leaf as he let the door swing open further. "Who are you?"

"My name is Grovyle. Lin's... somewhere in the house, and Yama's taking a nap." Grovyle peered over his shoulder at the dozing fighting type, catching a glimpse of Celebi trying her best to roust up. "They're letting a couple of friends and I stay here. Did you need them for something?"

He returned his gaze to the water bird when he didn't get an immediate response – but the sight of the opened leather bag, filled to the brim with envelopes, answered the question nicely. Pelipper quickly stuck a wing into the letters, keeping an eye on the strap around his beak as he continued to speak. "Just dropping off a delivery, that's all. Are you part of the exploration team Erin joined up with after she graduated?"

"Huh?" Grovyle blurted out. What? What was he talking about, who was Erin? He was beginning to get tired of hearing new name after new name; it was like being quizzed on things he'd hadn't been given a chance to study first. If nothing else, he at least knew the truth. "Er, uh... no, we're not?"

"Grovyle, who's at the door?" Celebi interrupted, a curious smile on her face as she brushed past the leaves on his arms, fluttering over to his side. "I think I was able to get Yama to wake up, so he's-"

"By Arceus!" Pelipper's beak dropped open in shock, and before he could recover, his mailbag had handily slid completely off of its perch, thumping to the ground as its contents spilled out onto the icy porch. "A Celebi! I, I'm so sorry, I... oh dear, I didn't realize that miss Lin and mister Yama were housing such important company! Please forgive me for my outburst!"

"H-huh? W-wait, w-what?" The pink fairy stuttered slightly, lowering herself onto the floor as the water bird bowed his head until his beak touched the wooden planks, and she looked away, mouth flattening as she clasped her hands behind her back. "Er, t-thank you for the compliment, sir, but, um, who..."

"I'm just the mail-carrier, ma'am, er, miss legendary," Pelipper began to ramble, stumbling over his own words as he tried to answer the simple question. "I'm just bringing a letter to Lin and Yama, that's all, I'll just be a few seconds and then I'll be out of your way, ma'am!"

Celebi let out a quiet 'mm-hm', kicking her feet against the floor as she walked over to help gather up the spilled mail, and Grovyle knelt down to help with the task. Thankfully, none of the envelopes had spilled into the snow piled up nearby, and after a few seconds both grass types helped lift the heavy bag back to its rightful spot, sans one scrap of paper that Pelipper had refused to take. The water bird continued to stutter incoherently as he watched the legendary Pokemon before him, and the girl continued to quietly mumble in response. Grovyle frowned.

"Afternoon, mailbird!" Yama thankfully cut in, pushing between his two guests and yawning loudly as he regarded Pelipper with a tired smile. Grovyle offered him the last letter, and he pinched a corner of it between two fingers. "One for us, eh? Is it who I'm thinking of?"

"Yes, mister Yama," Pelipper shook himself out of his stupor, nodding at the Hariyama with an awkward chuckle. "Eheh, I'd better get back to work. Sorry for bothering you and your important guests!"

The trio watched as the water bird flapped up and flew away, and as the figure became a speck in the sky, Yama closed the door and stomped back to the other end of the room, turning his letter around in his hand. Grovyle and Celebi followed him, and the wood gecko glanced at his friend, who stared down at the floor with an oddly subdued expression, the fire's light reflecting in her eyes. He reached out to poke her arm, drawing back a bit when she let out a startled gasp.

"Are you alright, Celebi?" Grovyle asked, and the fairy returned to her senses, brushing her antennae out of her face with an embarrassed smile.

"I'm fine, Grovyle, don't worry," The grass type replied, and she fluttered back to the floor, fidgeting a bit as she sat down near the warm fireplace. Grovyle sank next to her, his gaze lingering on his friend for a little bit longer. She no longer seemed quite as bothered, which was enough to lift the frown from his face, and he turned his head to look at Yama, who stood just a few paces behind them. The fighting type stood close to the doorflap leading to the other room, calling out as he grasped the envelope tightly.

"Hey, hun?" Yama's hearty yell reverberated around the cozy cabin. "We got some mail just now!"

"You don't have to yell, dear, I'm right here," Lin remarked lightly as she slipped back into the main room, tilting her head slightly as the letter caught her eye. "Have you checked to see who sent it yet?"

Her husband tossed the letter onto the Mienshao's rocking chair before breaking into a round of snickers; Lin only sighed in response, striding over to her seat and adjusting her glasses as she closely studied the paper. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly tore open the envelope, letting it drift dangerously close to the fireplace. Dusknoir quickly snatched it out of the air, taking a chance to look at it himself, and the elderly mink silently scanned over the message.

Grovyle looked over Dusknoir's shoulder during the short pause, watching as the ghost turned the ruined package over. The words 'to mama and papa from Erin' were scrawled – rather poorly, the grass type noted – on the underside. Celebi poked her head in between the two shortly after, her face twisting into recognition, then a cheery smile.

"That's... really sweet!" She muttered under her breath, and Grovyle allowed himself a small smile as the fairy stifled a giggle.

"You never mentioned a daughter," Dusknoir said, catching the attention of the two older Pokemon in the room. Lin passed the letter to her husband, who gladly took it from her, and she stroked at her whiskers a bit in embarrassment.

"Yes, well..." The mink replied sheepishly, looking back at the red-eyed ghost. "I suppose you would have been asking sometime today anyway, dears. You'll be staying in her old bedroom downstairs, after all."

"I'm a little surprised we hadn't brought her up already, to be honest, heh," Yama chuckled, idly scratching the back of his head as he continued to read the letter. "She sent us a letter a couple weeks ago, too! She's off on some job somewhere with the rest of her pals, as usual."

"She was a graduate from the Delibird Guild, you see," Lin explained quickly when she noticed the blank stares they received. "She's been working with Team Returners for the past few years, so we tend to hear a lot of interesting stories."

"I guess now we've got an interesting story to send back to her, eh, hun?" The Hariyama laughed to himself, but the words made Grovyle's heart careen into the pit of his stomach; instinctively, he sat up straight, brow furrowed with concern. Lin seemed to catch on to his plight, blinking a bit in surprise before walking over to him and giving him a curt nod.

"Grovyle, of course we wouldn't go about telling everyone about that!" She replied matter-of-factly, wearing a humored grin as she reassured the grass type, and Grovyle took a deep breath in relief as his brief panic subsided. "We'll just use your story from yesterday, and say you're freelancers that we found on the mountain."

"And if someone recognizes us?" Dusknoir shot back, speaking quietly as he left off from keeping the fire going.

"How many Pokemon recognized you three since you got tossed here, eh?" Yama pointed out, wagging a finger towards the ghost as he lazed about on the floor, and Dusknoir narrowed his eye in confusion. Grovyle quirked an eyebrow upward, shaking his head-leaf around a bit as he rolled the question around in his head, blocking out the low crackling of the fireplace so he could think clearly.

There was Lin and Yama, of course, they went without saying. There was Guildmaster Delibird, too, and all three of them had figured it out before their big meeting the day before... though that was just because of his own groggy, half-lucid babbling. But Arcanine didn't seem to realize who he was, and neither did Audino or the rest of the members of the rescue guild. Even those two youngsters that crashed into him in Snowrest Village had just called the three of them 'visitors'...

"Pelipper kind of knew who I was, but he seemed more surprised about me in particular," Celebi replied, her face scrunched up into a mild pout as she thought of the water bird.

"The Temporal Crisis is mostly history to the Pokemon that live here, dears," Lin picked up where her husband had left off, and her guests looked to her questioningly. She returned to her rocking chair, scooting it forward a bit so she wasn't quite so far away from her company. "To my understanding, the mainland somewhat remembers it, but both Blizzard Island and the Volcanic Island were much less involved or informed, to say nothing of the Northern Continent!"

"Heck, we first heard about it from the Guildmaster almost half a year after it'd all finished up," Yama added, tapping his foot rhythmically against the wooden floor. "And the three of us didn't start hearing any of the specific details until Erin started writing letters back to us, heh!"

Grovyle nodded in understanding; he was loathe to admit it to himself, but he actually liked the idea. When Dialga told him that they needed to live, he somehow doubted that the god of time had meant getting swarmed by Pokemon that recognized them, and if it was unlikely that they'd get figured out, then being able to pass off as an ordinary Pokemon would be that much easier. If anything, he was more worried about what would happen if he, Celebi and Dusknoir had to go to the mainland...

"Freelancers it is, then," The wood gecko said, turning to look at his friends, who voiced their agreement in turn. Lin clapped her paws lightly, smiling at the three of them.

"Good!" Yama replied shortly, shifting around until he was sitting up. "And now that yer all good and happy with that, I think I'm gonna ask a couple of you freelancers to help me out with a little favor."

"Oh! What do you need help with?" Celebi chirped, flapping up into the air a bit as the fighting type got to his feet. Grovyle hopped up as well, rubbing at the leaves on his arms as a slight chill set in, and Yama coughed into his fist to clear his throat before continuing.

"Well, darlin', you three kept feeding the fire so much fuel that we've only got one chunk of tinder left, heh," He gestured towards the wall near the fireplace, and the two grass types followed his movement; true to his word, there was only a single log left in the stock of wood, with the shard of flint and steel striker laid out next to it. "It's still a few hours 'til evening, so how about you two help me get some more, eh? It might be handy to have some grass types come along with!"

Grovyle briefly stared at the pile of fresh ashes before turning his gaze towards the window at the door, looking out at the cloudless sky. Celebi fluttered over in front of his face, resting a hand on his shoulder, and he glanced into her bright green eyes. Letting out a quiet chuckle, the wood gecko stretched out his arms. "That sounds fine, Yama."

"Alrighty, then let's get going!" The heavyset Hariyama stomped past them, making a beeline for the door, and Grovyle glanced at Dusknoir out of the corner of his eye. The ghost was helping Lin smother the dying fire.

"Are you okay with us going without you?" He asked. When he got a silent nod in reply, he smiled and followed after the older Pokemon, with Celebi in tow.

"Don't be long, dears!" Lin called after them.

* * *

The cabin quickly vanished from sight as Grovyle and Celebi followed Yama through the forest, the scent of the pine boughs sending tingles down the wood gecko's spine, and the trees rustled up above as the wind blew through their branches. The sun played peekaboo, popping out from behind its veil of dark green to occasionally shed light on a number of cut trees. Celebi briefly stopped, reaching out to brush against one of them. Lines of gleaming moisture ran down the roots.

"It feels so... fresh," The fairy said, smiling as she beckoned at Grovyle to do as she did, and he walked over, tracing a finger along one of the growth rings. It was a far cry from the lifeless, blackened scraps they'd been forced to use as firewood before. "Was this what it was like near Treasure Town?"

"There were more flowers and bushes," Grovyle shook his head, shivering lightly as the sun sank behind another pine tree, his feet soaked by the thinning snow. "There wasn't much forest either, unless you went further inland. And it was much warmer than it is here."

"Hey, you two, over here!"

Yama's voice caught their attention, and the pair of grass types picked up their pace, jogging over to the older Pokemon. He leaned against a small, gnarled tree, snapped and toppled from its roots as it lay in the dirt. "These old things look like they keeled over from the storm last night, so they should make for some easy pickings, eh?"

"So what can we do to help, Yama?" Celebi asked brightly, shaking her antennae out of her face. The fighting type winked at her before running his hand through some of the bushy twigs.

"Well, darlin', what you two could do for me is pick the tree clean of little twigs and other junk..." Yama trailed off momentarily, his eyes stuck on the leaves sprouting from Grovyle's arms. "Yer able to use a cutting attack, right?"

"Uh? Er, yeah, I can," He replied after a second, stepping a few paces away and shifting into a combat stance as his leaves merged into a bright blade of energy. He struck out at a particularly jutting branch, sending pine needles into the air as the stick plopped into the snow at the base of the dead log. "What about it, exactly?"

The Hariyama stomped over and clapped a strong hand on his back, making the grass type wince in mild pain. "Good news, Grovyle! Yer now in charge of cutting this thing into manageable pieces once the both of you are done de-twig-ing!"

Celebi set to work with a friendly laugh, starting to snap off various twigs and branches sprouting from the tip of the fallen tree, and Grovyle rolled his eyes, moving to the shattered end of the trunk and working his way around it. As he bent a particularly strong branch against his leg, he looked over at Yama, who was stomping over to the jagged stump, breathing into his hands together to warm them up. "So what are you going to do?"

"Uprooting!" Grovyle blinked at the short and simple reply.

The three worked in silence, save for the occasional grunt of effort, and the dead log quickly began to grow barer and barer as they gathered up the bits of tinder. Another strong breeze cut through the thicket, chilling Grovyle to the bone – he made a mental note to ask Lin and Yama about finding some way to stay warm without Arcanine around. Hadn't Lin mentioned finding something to wear?

Dumping a bunch of twigs near the stump, he smacked his hands together, only to find himself unable to pull them apart. He furrowed his brow, stretching his arms out to stare at them: to his surprise, they were covered in a bright-colored goop, and a small amount of pine needles were also stuck to his palms. A short wave of his hand did little to remove the stuff, and he grunted in slowly-growing frustration as he tried to scrape it off, first with his claws, then with a stick. Neither of them worked, and both of them simply gunked his hands up further. "What in the world...?"

Quickly, he dug his arms into the snow, crushing the moist slush between the sides of his claws as he let the grime soak. His awkward struggling drew Celebi's attention, and as she hid a smile of amusement, he sighed, showing her the strange glop. The fairy sucked in a surprised breath, flying over to her friend. She wisely refrained from taking Grovyle's hands into hers, instead looking on as the wood gecko tried to clean himself up.

"What is this stuff, Celebi?" The grass type asked, his annoyance turning to worry as he failed repeatedly to remove the gunk. The legendary Pokemon turned to look at the log they had been trimming, and she landed on the ground, walking up to the dead tree.

"Ah! Grovyle, look at this!" She gestured at him, and he stepped up behind her, kneeling down to see what she pointed at. A thick trail of viscous liquid, similar to the ones on the stumps before, ran down from a gash left by a torn branch, and Grovyle compared his hands to the tree; they seemed to match. Yama heard Celebi speak, and he peered over his shoulder at the two younger Pokemon, leaving the partly-removed roots alone as he stomped over.

"Hey, what's caught yer eye, eh?" He asked amicably, and Celebi pointed at Grovyle's gummed up hands. As the wind began to pick up again, Grovyle scrunched his eyes shut and clasped his claws together, shuddering as the pungent odor of pine wafted into his nose. It was as strong as the smell in the guild's hospital. "Aha, it's still leaking resin? Betcha we can collect it and sell it off in town, heh!"

"Sell it off? What for?" Celebi replied curiously, and Grovyle tried to pull his hands apart as he felt the pine glop begin to harden from the chilly temperature. He couldn't – the goopy liquid had frozen, thanks to the wind. "Can he get it off?"

"Oh, make it into glue, use it for starting fires, that sort of thing, darlin'," Yama explained, letting out a low 'hmm'. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you don't know about that, given where yer coming from and all. I'll go get something to help melt the stuff off, chop the tree while I'm gone!"

The fighting type nodded a goodbye to the two of them before hastily stomping back the way they'd came, and soon enough his footsteps had faded into silence, leaving Grovyle and Celebi alone in the forest. Grovyle grunted, glimpsing briefly at his gummed-up hands before standing up, and he let his arm-leaves merge again, awkwardly twisting back and forth as he hacked at one end of the stripped pine log. Celebi walked over to the pile of removed twigs and sticks, a few minutes passing as she watched her friend flail about.

"Bah. Forget it." Grovyle strode over to Celebi, sitting down next to her in a huff. He curled his toes as his rear sank onto the thin coat of snow. "I guess all we can do is sit and wait."

The pink fairy didn't say anything at first, floating up and firmly squeezing the wood gecko's shoulder. He turned to look at her, and she beamed happily at him. He stared briefly before letting out a sigh, letting his gummed-up hands rest in his lap. "Thanks, Celebi."

"At least it's not something like a sludge bomb, right? Tree gunk's no big deal for you, we'll live," She said, her tone slightly teasing, and the wood gecko smiled and rolled his eyes, looking upward. The sky, or at least what they could see of it, was only just starting to turn orange, the afternoon slowly passing into early evening. "Besides! It's nice to be able to just sit and wait without having to watch our backs, isn't it? No Primal Dialga hiding around the corner, and Dusknoir's our friend now..."

"Wheh-heh-huh? Grovyle? Celebi?"

Wood snapped loudly underfoot, and the two bounded to their feet in surprise.

Grovyle swiveled on his heels, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes as he spotted the source of the noise, a purple imp with crystal eyes, a shining emerald stuck in his chest, and a large slab of bark broken where he stood. The Pokemon was peeking at them from behind one of the less-dead trees, and Celebi gasped slightly as she turned around herself. "Sableye!"

The Sableye rushed at the two of them, a toothy grin plastered on his face as he plodded into the clearing. "I thought that I heard you talking! Wheh-heh-heh, what are ya doing here? One of the others said you were at some guild in a village around here! Who's the big guy?"

"W-we were!" Grovyle stuttered, caught off-guard by the imp's eerily-accurate statement, and he and Celebi shared a mutual glance at each other. His yellow eyes stared deeply into her green ones. "So that laugh we heard a couple nights ago in the guild... it really was one of you!"

"I guess so." Sableye shrugged, cracking his knuckles anxiously as he looked up at the two familiar faces. "C'mon, where's Master Dusknoir? He's not far behind you, right? And what's with your hands, Grovyle?"

"Er..." Grovyle trailed off, having reached up to scratch at the base of his head-leaf, stopping in his tracks when the dark type Pokemon pointed out his predicament. He slowly brought his arms back to his front, and Celebi giggled under her breath. "The guild's a rescue guild, a hospital. We've been taken in by a old couple that lives close by, since whatever supplies we had before are gone now."

"So you're not staying in the guild anymore?" Sableye licked his lips a bit, crunching his feet in the slushy soil. "I guess I'd better make sure the rest of us know that you're over here now!"

"Where are the other Sableye, anyway?" Celebi asked, her hands clasped behind her back as she floated down to the ground, eying the impish Pokemon with a curious expression. "From what I remember, you're never very far away from each other either."

Sableye looked away, laughing nervously. "Wheh-heh-heh... got separated."

"Separated?" Grovyle repeated, furrowing his brow. "How?"

"There were wild Pokemon in the forest!" Sableye shot back with a grumble. "We were talking, something found us, and we had to scatter!"

"You mean you didn't travel in twos or threes? You don't know where any of the others are at all?" Celebi's face fell in disappointment, and the imp nodded, confirming her thoughts. Grovyle tapped his toes against the dirt in thought. So the Sableye really had survived too... but how big was the island, if this one hadn't seen the rest in two days?

"I'll make sure to tell everyone else if I meet up with them again, though!" The imp piped up, wringing his fists as he spoke. He coughed a little, sheepishly scratching at his emerald as the two grass types looked at him. "Hopefully none of 'em will go to the guild since you're gone."

"What do you mean, 'if you meet up with them again'? You're coming with us, right?" Grovyle cocked his head, confused. "Dusknoir would probably be happy to see that you're still around, y'know."

"And if I go back with you, who's gonna tell the others not to go and invade the guild in search of Master Dusk-" Sableye was cut off mid-sentence, squatting onto the ground as he brought a hand to his ear. Slowly, but surely, the telltale sound of crunching snow drew nearer and nearer towards them. "Shoot, I'd better split before big stompy gets back! I'll catch up with you later, wheh-heh-heh!"

The dark imp quickly dashed away as the loud footsteps got even louder, kicking up a flurry of snow and dirt as he was swallowed up by the depths of the thicket. The two grass types didn't even get a chance to respond, the only noise coming from Celebi as she fluttered up into the air to avoid getting covered in grime. As the pair turned around, looking back at the dead tree they were supposed to be chopping, Grovyle released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"What should we do...?" While Sableye was probably better off looking for the rest of the group to avoid any misunderstandings, he still didn't know how Dusknoir would react to the news. He and Celebi had skipped out on telling him back in the guild, but now they knew for sure that the ghost's six companions had survived as well. "Dusknoir has a right to know, but... what if he wants to go searching for them? None of us are ready to go exploring again. We barely know anything about the island other than Snowrest Village."

"Well, Sableye did say he'd come back and meet us again later," Celebi muttered, brushing her antennae out of her face as she rested on Grovyle's shoulder, her wings just barely grazing the back of his neck. "Dusknoir's going to find out sooner or later that way, right? If we didn't tell him about this, he'd definitely be angry with us, Grovyle!"

"I know..." The wood gecko trailed off as the footsteps grew to a fever pitch, and he looked over at Yama as the fighting type finally reappeared, huffing and puffing somewhat, his breath turning to mist in the air.

"Hey... you two... hooh!" He exhaled heavily, resting his hands on his knees as he stopped to catch his breath. Pushing the encounter with Sableye out of his mind, Grovyle walked over to the heavyset Hariyama, Celebi followed close behind. "Didn't get that... tree hacked up, eh?"

"I wasn't able to, no. Sorry, I-" Grovyle briefly thought about the emerald-encrusted imp, then lifted his arms. "Leaf blades weren't much of an option like this."

"Well, I can probably bring the thing closer to us now that there aren't any sticks to get it stuck, so no worries," Yama said reassuringly, standing up and kicking some excess snow off of the top of his feet. "Lin told me to just send you home, because yer gonna have to have that gunk melted off!"

Grovyle grimaced, and he heard a certain legendary Pokemon stifle a laugh. "I... guess that's better than nothing. Thanks."

"Hah, go on and move yer tails before the moon starts coming up!" The older Pokemon replied, studying the dead pine as he thumbed over his shoulder. Looking behind him, the two grass types noticed a helpful trail of footsteps, and Celebi flew past the both of them, leading the charge back to the cabin. Grovyle looked back into the depths of the thicket, the icy needles glimmering in the twilight. "Something wrong, kiddo?"

Grovyle stiffened slightly before relaxing, letting a slight smile onto his face. "Nothing getting this resin off won't fix. See you at the house, Yama."

Grovyle nodded a goodbye before running after Celebi, the snow crunching underfoot. Yama watched the young explorer go, grabbing onto the end of the pine tree, and with some effort he forced the hefty trunk to move. Walking backwards, the dead wood scraped against the snow, a line of spotless soil trailing through the forest as it was dragged out of the clearing. The pile of twigs, and the spiky stump, sat forgotten.


	7. Chapter 7

"There you are, dear... finish washing yourself up with this, alright? Make sure you don't miss a spot!"

Grovyle sighed in relief as Lin and Celebi placed a damp rag on his hands, and he fidgeted in place as the former strode into the other room with the resin-filled cup, the dwindling fire having done its job. Outside, they could hear Yama grunting and yelling as he moved the dead pine tree close to the house. Rubbing the soreness from his wrists, Grovyle glanced over at Dusknoir, who leaned against the fireplace with what passed for a smug expression on his face.

"Cold hands?" The ghost gruffly said, his red eye narrowed as he reached up to scratch under his shawl collar. "We were allowed to leave the guild just this morning, Grovyle. I imagine they wouldn't be happy to hear that one of us accidentally got a case of frostbite so soon."

Grovyle rolled his eyes at the ghost, returning his attention to cleaning his hands. The coolness was a bit of a shock to his nerves after being frozen and thawed, but his hands felt much cleaner than they had felt before.. "I wasn't gummed up long enough to have that happen, you know. I doubt I'd have needed another trip to the hospital."

"And now we know to be careful of it later on, right?" Celebi added, fluttering in front of the grass type as she spoke. The wood gecko nodded in agreement, and so did Dusknoir after a moment. "Good thing you and Lin hadn't smothered the fire yet!"

Lin pushed through the doorflap back into the main room, smiling gently at the pink fairy as she ambled back over to the trio of explorers, and Grovyle offered her the washcloth. As she took it from him and draped it over the back of her chair, Grovyle clenched his claws into fists, working the stiff joints before hopping onto his feet and stretching. The fighting type grabbed the single remaining piece of firewood and brushed at the ashes, burying whatever embers might have remained. "Well, now is as good a time as ever to do so, dear. It's starting to get quite late, and I imagine all three of you are starting to get hungry again, aren't you?"

"I guess so... we haven't eaten anything since breakfast," Grovyle thought aloud, rubbing at his belly. The familiar empty feeling was starting to crop up again, and he instinctively tried to suppress it as best he could. His mouth suddenly felt quite dry. "I guess we're going to the inn, then?"

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that!" Celebi exclaimed, her antennae bouncing up and down as she flew a bit higher in the air. "I guess it must be really busy, since there were so many visiting explorers in the village this morning."

"Not just explorers, dear, but sailors too. We're close to the sea, and so is the inn." Lin slowly walked over to the door, sticking her head outside. A cold draft leaked in through the crack, and whatever warmth the fire may have left vanished immediately. "Yama!"

As Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir followed after their caretaker, her husband stomped around the corner and up onto the porch, wiping a few trickles of sweat from his brow. "What's up, hun?"

"It's about time for us to go, don't you think?" The Mienshao pointed out, glancing out towards the horizon. The sun had long since sank behind the other side of the island, and Grovyle noticed a couple early stars finally beginning to wink into the burnt-orange sky. Celebi hovered just above the grass type's head, watching quietly, and Yama jolted in surprise when he took a look himself. He laughed sheepishly and clapped his large hands together.

"Hah, yer right about that! I'm glad yer reminding me, hun," The fighting type thanked, landing a quick peck on his wife's nose before taking a short jump backward to avoid a playful swat of her sleeves. "The big ol' tree's probably fine sitting there. Did Grovyle make sure he can't accidentally chow down a mouthful of resin?"

The wood gecko grimaced at the thought, stepping forward and spinning his wrists for all to see. "I'm just fine, see?"

"Well, I guess you are, eh? Heh heh..." Yama chuckled lightly as the three Pokemon exited the house, and Lin hastily shut the door, pushing past some of the snow on the porch to take one last peek inside. "I suppose we had better start moseying on down to the docks, eh?"

"So the inn is not in Snowrest itself?" Dusknoir asked plainly, folding his arms, and the Hariyama nodded cheerfully in response. "Hmph. The docks must not be far away from the village then, or else we would be in more of a rush."

"There were crossroads between the guild and the village... the docks must be down one of the other paths," Celebi muttered under her breath, and Grovyle reached up and gently poked her hand with a claw. She started slightly before looking down at him. "That does make a lot of sense, since it means any sailors arriving have a close place to rest up."

"That's right, darlin'," Yama replied with a wink. "Though we'll probably see less resting and more eating from that crowd, hah!"

"Why don't you three take the lead this time, dears?" Lin interrupted, gesturing at the two grass types and one ghost type with a wave of her paws, and she slid her glasses up her nose as they turned to look at her. "I know you didn't see much of the village today, but it'd probably be good for you all to get your own bearings instead of following us around. Besides, Yama and I will help if you do get lost."

Grovyle stroked his head-leaf a few times in thought; it definitely was a prudent thought, since they'd been following other Pokemon since they'd woken up in the Delibird Guild. "That's a good idea, yeah. Okay... then let's get going, everyone!"

* * *

Waves loudly crashed up against the wooden logs, flinging froth and spray into the air, the scent of salt mixing with the smell of food that wafted out from the inn. The coastline was decidedly barren, even for a snowfield, with only three piers, a single ship tied to one of the piers' legs, and a large cabin with tables in front and a smoking chimney on top. As they stepped up onto the porch, Grovyle cocked his head, listening to the muffled chatter coming from inside; his sudden stop caused both Celebi and Dusknoir to bump into him from behind, and he lashed forward and grabbed the doorknob to keep from losing his balance. As they floated away to give the grass type some room, Lin cleared her throat.

"Very good, you three. The village might seem large, but it's not so hard to navigate, is it, dears?" The Mienshao asked knowingly, and Grovyle straightened himself up, stroking the drooping leaves on his arms. With the twilight reaching its end, a chill was setting in quickly, and the wood gecko noticed Celebi and Dusknoir shaking a bit themselves.

"Lin... we simply walked in a straight line, and then turned at the crossroads," Dusknoir remarked with a deadpan voice, countering the older Pokemon's look with a bemused glance. "It's barely any different from Treasure Town."

"Hah, then yer gonna be just fine getting around Snowrest on yer own, eh?" Yama laughed, stomping over to the ghost and clapping a hand on his shoulder. Dusknoir rolled his eye dismissively, his breath turning to mist in the air as he let out a sigh. "Let's head in and look for a table, we're all starving anyway!"

"Fine by me." Grovyle nodded, twisting the doorknob and letting the hunk of wood slide open. Before he could step inside, he was roughly shoved inside by the rest of the group, and with no helpful doorknob to hang onto this time, he found himself unceremoniously falling face-first onto the floor. He just barely heard Celebi suck in a breath as he pushed himself up off of the logs, and he shook his head-leaf out from in front of his face. The multitude of voices blabbing at each other almost overwhelmed his ears, and he grumbled, "You didn't need to push, though... ouch."

Neither of his friends seemed to hear him over the din, and with a grunt of mild annoyance Grovyle got to his feet, dusting himself off as he lifted his head. His breath caught in his throat and a shiver ran down his spine. How... many Pokemon were in here!?

He felt his jaw slacken as he stared at the sight. Every table he could see, every stool at the counter, every seat around the room, was occupied by someone. Some of them were just talking, some of them were drinking, eating, lounging, looking around impatiently for someone or something. A merry atmosphere dominated the room. He looked over at the others, who seemed similarly taken aback, and shook his head as the initial shock wore off. Dusknoir seemed to recover soon after, though Celebi simply fluttered in the air with a nervous, surprised expression, trying to hide her face.

"Aha, there's a good one, hun! Let's grab it while we can, eh?"

Yama's triumphant call caught the explorers' attention, and the wood gecko watched as Celebi jolted, absently rubbing at her face before glancing at their caretakers. Turning around, Grovyle noticed the couple gesturing at them to follow, and they quickly pushed their way past the various visitors over to a table nestled in a secluded corner across the room.

"Go ahead and relax, okay, dears?" Lin said as Grovyle and Dusknoir seated themselves, and the fighting type put two stools on top of each other for Celebi. "Now where in the world could Combusken and Drilbur be...?"

"They're probably trying to feed all of these Pokemon, hah!" Yama peered around the room, drumming his fingers against his side. "Let's both look around for 'em, hun. They're definitely not in this part of the inn as far as I can see!"

"Will all of you be alright if we do that?" Lin asked, turning to look at the three younger Pokemon.

"Go ahead, Lin," Grovyle replied, waving a hand at her, and Celebi nodded cheerfully in agreement. Dusknoir glanced at the Mienshao out of the corner of his eye, and he gave a curt nod as well. "We should be fine."

The woman gently smiled before she and her husband began to wade across the inn, leaving the three explorers alone at the table. Grovyle leaned back against the wall, watching as Celebi fidgeted a bit on the decidedly-unstable stack of stools, and Dusknoir folded his arms, staring intently as he thought to himself.

"It's quite busy... but slow-moving, too." The ghost narrowed his eye as he watched another exploration team wander through the door, look around, groan, and then exit again, likely to sit down at one of the tables outside. "Lin and Yama mentioned two Pokemon that ran the place, but it seems like it's not even being run at all."

"I bet lots of explorers like to meet here, though," Celebi said, scooting forward to let her legs dangle off the edge of her seat, and she stretched her arms out, letting herself relax and watch the crowd. "And since it's right near the docks, not only do lots of explorers come here, so does news!"

Grovyle stifled a yawn, scratching at his belly. Hopefully they'd be able to eat soon, but with how packed the inn was... "Either way, we don't have any news... worth immediately sharing. And somehow I don't think any of us are going to be doing any exploring for a living anytime soon."

"Unless we go hunting for firewood again, right?" The fairy tilted her head slyly, and Grovyle rolled his eyes at her. She giggled.

"If the only danger of woodcutting is getting covered in resin," Dusknoir muttered, tearing his gaze away from the inn to look at his friends, and he relaxed somewhat, unfolding his arms and letting them droop to his sides. "Then there'd be little to be careful about. Yama didn't seem to bring you two very far away from the house."

"Even so, there still has to be some mystery dungeons on the island. I'm betting the Vast Ice Mountain... er, Mount Avalanche, is one of them," Grovyle hastily corrected himself, clasping his claws together as he leaned forward onto the tabletop. "And since you and I had to drag ourselves through some other ones when we were trying to get to the Passage of Time, they probably exist somewhere here, too."

"Mmm... this timeline is definitely different, but it's not completely different," Celebi lowered her head and hummed to herself before glancing nervously at the ghost type next to her. Dusknoir easily noticed, staring back at her, and Grovyle felt himself tense up, knowing almost instinctively what was coming next. "Dusknoir, do you think anyone... other than you, and Grovyle and I got restored to this timeline?"

A few brief minutes passed before Dusknoir responded. "...you're wondering about Bill?"

Grovyle recoiled in realization, any talk of the Sableye vanishing from the tip of his tongue – now there was a thought that hadn't crossed his mind at all. Had Bill survived like they had? Rose must have, since she had to be the one to pass on the story of what happened at Temporal Tower. He'd felt... he'd called out to both the little Vulpix and the human-turned-Riolu on the mountaintop, there was an impulse like he was sure they would hear him... it felt a little silly in retrospect.

"I... oh gosh, I didn't even think..." The pink fairy sputtered, and Grovyle frowned; so she hadn't thought of it either. He reached over to gingerly pat her back, trying to ease their mutual shame at their absentmindedness, and Dusknoir shot the both of them a confused look, about to say something.

"Hope you three didn't start missing us, hah!" Yama's voice, however, turned their attention elsewhere, and they looked over at the main room. Lin and Yama politely pushed their way back to the cozy corner, with a covered wooden platter somehow floating along behind them. The older couple sat down across the table, and Yama scooted to one end to reveal an orange-plumed chicken, his arms folded and an amused glare on his face. The platter stopped, teetering and tottering back and forth as it tried its best to make it onto the tabletop, and the Combusken chuckled.

"Bahahahaaaa! Can't quite get it, can ya, numbskull?" Combusken squawked as he squatted down and lifted the platter into the air with a single hand, hoisting up the small mole that dug his claws into the bottom of the dish. "Drilbur, let go before you knock everything over!"

"I can't, Combusken, I caaaan't!" Drilbur flailed his little legs about in a panic, and Celebi hopped off of her seat and fluttered over, dodging a few kicks before grabbing a foot. Yama easily pinched the other one between his fingers, and they yanked downward, freeing the ground type from his predicament. "Wow! Thanks, miss! Thanks, Yama!"

"Get your feet offa the table, Drilbur, it's unsanitary," Combusken brusquely picked up Drilbur by the scruff of his neck and dropping him onto the floor. "Here ya go, Lin, Yama! Potatoes and tea, two for you and three for the new freeloaders."

"Freelancers, Combusken, and thank you." Lin nodded gratefully, taking the top of the platter off. Grovyle blinked at the new food, crispy brown lumps split open and covered in berries, and soon after waved away a wisp of steam that floated his way. "These are the ones I was talking about, the Pokemon from Mount Avalanche that are staying with us?"

"It's good to meet you, sir," Grovyle said, thankful for a chance of subject, and he reached his hand out. Combusken took it and shook strongly, narrowly avoiding sending the wood gecko's arm into one of the potatoes. "My name is Grovyle. We're explorers."

"I'm Dusknoir," The ghost greeted the pair of Pokemon, taking one of the potatoes into his hands and sliding it over to him. He hastily let go of it with a quiet hiss, seemingly content to let the thing cool off.

"Hello there!" Celebi replied with a chipper smile, returning to her stack of stools as she spoke. "I'm Celebi. It's nice to meet you both!"

"Yeah, yeah, we both knew all of that, they already told us your names and stuff while they were helping us bring this thing outta the kitchen," Combusken drawled, picking up his partner and placing him on his back. Drilbur waved awkwardly at them as he hung onto the chicken. "I'm Combusken and he's Drilbur. We run this place, though you already know that too, according to these two!"

"Yes, they mentioned that," Dusknoir replied dryly, and both Combusken and Yama laughed, clapping their hands together. Lin simply rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her tea. Grovyle did the same with his own cup, letting the mild, herbal liquid soothe his senses as he gulped it down.

"You look like you could use an extra pair of hands. Or more, to be honest," The wood gecko remarked as he poked a claw at his food. Still a bit too hot to eat. Drilbur nodded at him, seemingly ignorant of the multitude of stares that came from other visitors that hadn't been served yet. "This place looks pretty busy."

"Really? I don't think it looks any busier than it normally is," The mole said, fidgeting a bit on his partner's back. Everyone at the table simply kept silent at his obliviousness, a pause which he took as a cue to continue. "Uh, Combusken, we should get back to work now, or their food will get cold!"

"I can hear you just fine, Drilbur, you don't have to nag me," Combusken jumped up and down a few times to shake the mole around. Grovyle sheepishly fiddled with the leaves on his arms as he watched their antics. "Alright, we're going, ya numbskull! You three should come see us again sometime, when we're not losing all of our tail feathers trying to get to everyone! Bahahahaaaa!"

Celebi and Grovyle waved goodbye as the two inn patrons wandered back the way they came, and the former dropped her arm after a few moments, content to begin eating her dinner. After making sure that his had cooled enough to touch, the wood gecko scooped up a handful of his own berry-topped vegetable and popped it into his mouth.

He chewed a few times and cringed heavily, letting the strange food rest on his tongue for a moment as a strong spicy heat seared his cheeks. He looked over at Dusknoir as the ghost coughed into his fist, seemingly having the same trouble, and they both took a swig of their cups of tea; Grovyle let out a moan of relief as he doused the burning taste, and he felt a couple tears leak from his eyes.

"Having a little trouble with the food, eh?" Yama grinned at them, and he picked up his own potato and devoured half of it with a single bite. "Lin and I figured you'd like it after having to deal with the cold all day, and spicy food is the Blizzard Island's specialty!"

The wood gecko leaned back and took a deep breath. He could appreciate the sentiment now that his sense of taste was starting to come back, but he kept a wary hand on his tea as he took a smaller portion of food. "All I've ever eaten are raw fruits and berries, so I'm... not used to this, I guess."

"I hope that we can all get used to the weather before too long," Celebi chimed in, wiping a couple mushy flecks from her cheeks before continuing. "Or maybe when we look for work, we can try and find a place where it's warm."

"You really shouldn't force yourself to move too fast, dears. Yama and I will want you to find work sooner or later, but given your circumstances it'd be better to adjust to your new lives as best you can." Lin adjusted her glasses and fixed the three younger Pokemon with a stern, but motherly, stare.

"You mentioned when we first met that nobody in the village was looking for freelancer work," Dusknoir pointed out, gesturing outward with an open hand. "So there's little for us to do anyway."

Yama broke into a round of chortles, setting his meal back onto the table as he laughed, and Dusknoir glanced over at the Hariyama expectantly. Lin sighed and rolled up her sleeves to keep them from getting into her own food, and she spoke up again when her husband continued to chuckle to himself.

"Dusknoir, dear, when I said that, I was talking about exploration work," The Mienshao clarified, pausing briefly to take a bite of her potato, handling the spicy food with surprising ease. "Most of the exploration requests are handled by Delibird and the guild. There's plenty of other work to be found here."

"Like helping out Combusken and Drilbur here in the inn?" Celebi said, the pink fairy smiling hopefully as she flapped a short ways into the air, her stools rattling a bit from the force of her wings. "It's so busy here that I bet they'd be happy to have anyone help them out."

"That's right, darlin', though yer probably gonna need to butter 'em up a little," The fighting type replied with a thumbs-up of agreement, thinking for a moment as he rocked back and forth on the floor, and he glanced at his wife. "Hun, we never got around to showing them the market, did we? I bet they could work out as part-timers around there, eh?"

Grovyle folded his arms as Lin nodded, resting his head against his head-leaf. "Looking around Snowrest Village seems like a good thought, but I don't really know what kind of job I could do. The only thing I think I would be good at is working at the Delibird Guild somehow."

"I am not sure either," Dusknoir added suddenly, his voice catching the attention of the other Pokemon, and he wrapped his hands around his teacup. "Under Master Dialga, exploration was my main duty. I don't have much other experience."

"Well, it's uncommon for the guilds to take part-time members, but I imagine the Guildmaster wouldn't mind letting you help." Lin reached over and placed her paw on his hand, giving him a gentle, reassuring smile. Her eyes gleamed behind her glasses, and as the ghost nodded gratefully, the graying mink turned to look over her shoulder at the main room of the inn. "Like I said, you shouldn't rush yourselves into anything, and we won't rush you either. Exploring taught you that, I'm sure!"

Grovyle couldn't help but let out a laugh at the Mienshao's sly comment, and Celebi giggled to herself as well. The wood gecko calmed himself down before replying. "Yeah... yeah, I guess you're right. Like Dusknoir was saying back at the house, we did only just get out of the Delibird Guild today."

The ghost in question rolled his eye at him, but seemed otherwise content to pick at his food; Grovyle quickly did the same, as the potato was starting to actually get cold, spices aside. How long had they been here, anyway? They'd been talking for quite a while... without a window nearby, he'd lost track of time. "I suppose we can just look around the village tomorrow and see stuff for ourselves."

"Good!" Lin exclaimed with a satisfied smile. "I imagine you'd have to get out and about at least a little tomorrow anyway. I'm probably going to be going early to sell the resin we got from the pine tree, and Yama, dear, you'll have to cut that up before we get another blizzard, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah, yer right, hun," The Hariyama absently rubbed a finger behind one of his ears, munching away at his dinner with his other hand. "Tree goo aside, that's a pretty convenient fallen tree, and getting it soaked would be a big ol' waste, eh?"

"So we're on our own?" Celebi smiled, stretching her arms out as she fluttered onto the table. She'd long since finished her food – Grovyle couldn't help but feel embarrassed as he chewed away at the potato skin. "That'll be fun! Though I guess we'll need to find a way to stay warm, eheh."

"Oh, I said I was going to find you three something to wear, didn't I? I'll look in the morning before I leave," Lin scooted backwards a bit, remembering her words earlier in the day, and as she stood up, she quickly adjusted her glasses before they fell off of her nose. Yama followed suit, dusting off his belly and letting out an abrupt belch that earned him a couple claps and whooping calls from other Pokemon in the room. He grinned in embarrassment when he received an unimpressed stare from his wife, and Grovyle smiled inwardly at the old couple.

"Are we going to return to the house now?" Dusknoir asked, blinking as he polished off the last of his dinner, and he floated off of his seat, letting out a satisfied breath as he patted the mouth-shaped pattern on his stomach. Celebi fluttered into the air as well, swooping under to lift her stack of stools back to where they belonged. She grunted, struggling a bit as the heavy wood teetered above her head, and Grovyle reached out to help the fairy, who nodded gratefully at the gesture.

"Yeah, we'd better hightail it back home before it gets any colder outside," Yama remarked as he glanced into the main room; the constant chattering had died down somewhat, and many Pokemon were getting up from their tables, likely to head to wherever the inn's rooms were. "At least it was clear all day, heh! Yer not gonna have to sleep through any snowstorms tonight!"

"I guess we're going to take the lead back?" Grovyle asked, using the leaves on his arms to wipe a few stray bits of food off of his claws. The two fighting types shrugged at him.

"If you'd like to, dear, then go ahead," Lin replied, and the three explorers looked at each other briefly before nodding. Taking one last glance at the table in the corner, the group pushed themselves through the inn and towards the door outside, their bellies full and their moods content.

* * *

Yama stepped as quietly as he could out of the underground room, the soft breathing of the sleeping youngsters drifting past him, and he spun in a half-circle as he slunk into the second bedroom, the light of a single candle flickering around the walls. He wearily eyed the large pile of fluffy, folded blankets that awaited him, allowing himself a hefty yawn as he made a beeline for the comfy fabric. "Hey, hun. I'm heading to bed now."

Lin sat at a messy stone desk nearby, its surface covered in paper scraps and bits of burnt wood, and she scooted around to watch her husband's entrance. She picked up the metal candleholder and lifted it above her head. "Are they asleep?"

"They're snoozing like logs," The Hariyama waved a hand at her, sitting down onto the makeshift bed and fidgeting a bit as he got comfortable. "Heh, it's been a while since we had anyone staying in there, eh?"

"Yes... it's strange having someone around the house so long after Erin left, isn't it, dear?" Lin dropped her voice to a whisper, getting up and wrapping the heavyset Pokemon into a one-armed hug, standing on the tips of her toes to nuzzle his chin. "Even with her letters, and when she and her friends come to Blizzard Island for work, it's been so quiet here."

"Well, it's not gonna be quiet now, and I doubt those three are gonna be calling us mama and papa either, heheh!" Yama chuckled quietly, affectionately draping one of the elderly Mienshao's sleeves around his finger. "Yer coming to bed soon, right? Yer looking pretty tired, Lin."

"Do I? I guess today was rather busy," Lin replied as she broke the embrace, taking her glasses off and sliding them onto the desk. "I'll be up for a few more minutes, Yama. Go ahead, dear, I won't be long."

The Hariyama gave her a brief nod before settling down onto the bed, rolling onto his back and drifting off to sleep almost instantly. Lin stifled a laugh at the sight, looking on for a few seconds before returning to her seat and setting the candle close to the wall, away from the thin sheets of paper. She stroked her whiskers thoughtfully, staring intently at the ceiling, before grabbing a piece of paper and a fresh stick of charcoal. She took a deep breath, trying to focus herself as best she could, and began to write.

"My dear Erin..." She recited under her breath, pausing as she dotted the I to get her words in order, letting her husband's quiet snoring lull her into a trance. "I'm glad to hear that you and the Returners are doing well with your work. I imagine that you'll be surprised to hear that your mama and papa have had quite the busy past few days themselves..."


	8. Chapter 8

"_What!? Then... then what has the planet's paralysis done to us all? What has Primal Dialga done!?"_

_The room was flung into an uproar as Celebi finished explaining her findings, each voice drowning out the others as the noise bounced around the ruined walls of the makeshift fortress. The pink fairy sighed and sadly shook her head, only to gasp and start as Bill walked forward and lightly pushed her out of the way. The human's bangs fell in front of his face as he slammed a fist onto the head of the Kangaskhan Stone that sat at the front of the platform. The strength of the blow sent a slight tremor through the stage as he yelled out at the investigation team. "Everyone! Calm down and quiet down, now!"_

_The assembled Pokemon stopped almost instantly at the booming order, coming back to their senses and standing still, the atmosphere of the group turning quite embarrassed at their outburst. Celebi smiled gratefully as Bill sent her a thumbs-up, and she returned to her spot near the statue. "Thank you, everyone! I know this is a shock to hear-"_

"_A shock?" An unknown voice blurted from the crowd, still somewhat unable to contain themselves. "You tell us that when Dialga turned primal that he messed with our heads with the time... time-whatever you called it!? What if he made someone forget what they were doing in the middle of a mission? What if someone forgot who they were at all!?"_

"_Because it's already too late for him to try," Grovyle growled as he stomped up to Celebi's other side, the leaves on his limbs brushing against each other as he folded his arms. "He had already lost his mind with the collapse of Temporal Tower, like Celebi said. He's just a wild Pokemon now."_

"_That's right, Grovyle." Celebi nodded at the wood gecko. "When time went out of whack, everyone was affected, and that's why nobody remembers anything about the past, not even Pokemon who had to have lived before the planet was paralyzed!"_

_A quiet, hushed murmur ran its course through the crowd of Pokemon, various friends and acquaintances turning to each other to whisper their thoughts to one another on the new discovery of the legendary pink fairy. The trio opted to patiently wait it out this time, and soon enough a hand shot into the air. Celebi gestured at the hand's owner to speak._

"_You said you also had good news, miss Celebi," The Pokemon asked hopefully, and Grovyle narrowed his eyes at the youthful voice. "I don't want to hear any more about the bad news. Please, what else did you find out while you were working away from Pelipper Island?"_

"_Ooh, that's right! It actually has something to do with time and Dialga, so it's good that you asked now," Celebi said with a soft laugh, smiling brightly as she flapped a little higher into the air, only returning to earth once Bill coughed loudly. He grinned as she let out a brief huff. "I've finally found a lead! A real lead on how we can fix the planet's paralysis!"_

_There was a clatter from the opposite end of the stage, and both Bill and Grovyle spun on their heels at the noise, the former looking up to the shattered ceiling in surprise. A very familiar pair of small, purple legs scampered up and over the wall, and Grovyle felt his heart skip a beat in horror as he heard another clatter, louder this time, his vision started whiting out-_

* * *

The grass type's yellow eyes shot wide open at the noise, the subconscious memory swiftly being buried under all sorts of sensations that overwhelmed his brain, not the least of which was an incredibly comfortable warmth that he let himself sink into. He quickly adjusted to the change in light, the underground bedroom surprisingly well-lit by what he assumed was a candle nearby, and he reached an arm out from under the makeshift bed to stretch his limbs. As he sat up, the layers of wool blankets unfolded onto his lap, and he rubbed the crusts of sleep from the corners of his eyes. "Uh... what time is it... hello?"

Grovyle's answer came in the form of muffled talk drifting in from somewhere else, and he looked around the room, his eyes lingering on the two empty piles of blankets that sat nearby. "Wait, are they already awake?"

The wood gecko hopped out of bed, resisting the urge to jump back in and wrap himself up in the warm covers, and shuffled his way through the basement hallway and up the stairs, slowing down as his head peeked into the kitchen. Celebi quickly noticed his arrival, and she smiled at him from across the kitchen table as she munched away at a plump green apple. Grovyle blinked in confusion; the fairy wore a tiny scarf around her neck. Now that he looked a little harder, so did Dusknoir, the long strip of fabric running circles around his head, on the inside of his shawl collar.

"Good morning, Grovyle!" Celebi greeted cheerfully, and both Lin and Yama turned around to look at him as he crossed the last few steps up into the room, and he slowly walked over to the table. Lin passed him another apple, which he accepted gratefully. "Did you sleep okay?"

"I guess so," The grass type replied, mumbling a bit as he bit into the sweet fruit, and he quickly chewed and swallowed as he looked back at his friends. "How long have you all been up?"

"We've all only been awake for maybe half an hour or so, dear, and Celebi and Dusknoir only came up here a few minutes before you," Lin answered gently, her whiskers bouncing as she gestured to her side. Grovyle looked over, pausing his eating as he noticed a third scarf sitting in a bundle on the tabletop. "That's yours, Grovyle. I'm afraid that none of Erin's old baby clothes would fit you three, of course, so I just got these out instead."

"It itches," Dusknoir remarked quietly, punctuating his statement by scratching at his neck, and Yama chuckled, winking at the ghost as he clapped his hands together.

"Well, that's old stuff there, so I don't think yer gonna be able to do anything about that, heheh," The heavyset fighting type chuckled. "That there's Mareep wool, though, so it'll store air to keep you warm! Wear it while yer snoozing away and it'll be nice and toasty when you wake up, eh?"

Grovyle leaned over the table to take his new piece of clothing into his claws, holding it out to its full length for all to see before wrapping it around his neck and head-leaf, tying it off in the front. Satisfied, he took another bite of his apple, looking around the room at the small shelves and cupboards as he took a deep breath through his nose. His throat tingled pleasantly.

"So... I guess we're going to look around Snowrest on our own today, right?" He asked after taking a few moments to eat, and both Dusknoir and Celebi nodded in agreement. "Good. That probably won't take the whole day to do... but it's a start, at least."

"I think it would be a good idea to make sure to introduce ourselves to the other villagers here," Dusknoir added, rubbing idly at the markings on his belly. "If we're going to be staying here for some time, we should make it clear that we're freelancers."

Grovyle thought a moment, rolling his apple between his hands. His legs were starting to get a little cold now that he'd been out of bed for a while – why were there no stools or chairs to sit on in here, like there were at the inn? Maybe Lin and Yama weren't used to company? "We might as well. Even if there isn't any work now, if they know we're staying here, they'll keep us in mind."

"That should be simple enough. We just need to go around and say hello to everyone we can find!" Celebi exclaimed, her wings buzzing to life as she flapped off of the table and into the air, leaving her apple core to brown away. "I think we should look around the market and see the services, like we talked about last night. It's the only part of the town we haven't been to yet."

Lin frowned slightly at that, but her eyes quickly lit up as she let out an 'ah!' of surprise, and she strode over to one of the cupboards, opening it and taking out a small cup. As she made her way back to the rest of the group, she firmly placed the dish in front of Grovyle, who raised his head slightly as he looked into it. It was filled with solid resin.

"I thought you said you were going to go early today to sell this, Lin?" The grass type thought aloud, glancing over in confusion at the older woman. Lin bowed her head, looking kindly at the younger Pokemon from behind her glasses.

"I was, but I think that if you three are going to go that way, you would be better off doing so yourself. Besides," The Mienshao explained with a playful tone in her voice, pointing a paw at the apple Grovyle was holding. "You are technically the one who found it, my dear."

The wood gecko recoiled, smiling in embarrassment as both he and Celebi chuckled, and even Dusknoir let out a dry, thinly-veiled cough. "Then we'll do it. Thank you, Lin."

"Well, if yer gonna be doing that, I guess that means you can help me out with cutting this tree down to size, right, hun?" Yama suggested, sitting down onto the floor and slumping backwards against the railing of the stairs. Lin rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and her husband laughed quietly to himself as he planted a peck on her cheek. The three explorers shared a mutual look of amusement at the sight.

"We should probably get going, then," Grovyle stated, standing up straight as he took a last few bites of his apple. Celebi flew over to him, and Dusknoir floated off of the floor as well, folding his arms. "Might as well get an early start."

"See you later then, you three!" Yama replied, and they waved goodbye as they made their way towards the entrance. "And don't get yerselves into any more trouble than you have to, hahaha!"

* * *

"Alright... we're here, so which one looks like the general store to you...?"

Grovyle trailed off, squeezing the cup of resin in his hand as he and his companions peered around the small, rounded plaza that made up what they assumed was the market. The village was only just starting to get busy, the sound of clanging metal still rising above the crunching snow and faintly blowing wind. Grovyle furrowed his brow somewhat as Celebi fluttered over to his side; compared to Treasure Town, the place seemed far less robust, with only three buildings that seemed to offer any kind of service at all. Only one of them stood out from the others, and that was only because it was made entirely of stone bricks instead of the pine logs that every other building seemed to be built from.

Dusknoir exhaled quietly, catching his breath in the palms of his hands, and Grovyle looked over his shoulder at the ghost. He wore a dryly amused expression, and even the markings on his belly seemed to turn their corners upward. "When Lin and Yama said that there wasn't much here, they certainly weren't lying to us, were they?"

"No, they weren't," Grovyle replied, toying with the loose ends of his scarf as he tugged his head-leaf closer to his neck. He took a step forward as some visiting Pokemon bumped into his side, and he turned fully around as various explorers shoved and scooted past the three of them. "I was expecting something bigger than this, to be honest."

Celebi flew a short ways above their heads, spinning in a small circle as she got a good look at the last part of Snowrest. "Hmm... it'll make finding the general store easier, though. And it's probably not the place where someone's hammering metal, so that's one place that's not it!"

"Right..." Grovyle remembered something about a smithy. The thought of the warmth of a forge crossed his mind and sent a shiver down his spine, but he shook his head to get himself back on track.

"Let's take a look, then," Dusknoir said briefly, floating a short ways away from the two grass types and looking around the market, and Grovyle and Celebi also peered around. A quick glimpse of the closest building showed a small sign with a picture of an explorer's badge painted on, and Celebi nudged her friends to get their attention – upon seeing it, they nodded stoutly.

The trio pushed past a few Pokemon and opened up the door to the shop, the sign swinging above their heads as they made their way inside, and Grovyle gently shook his feet to get a few sticking flakes of snow off of his toes. The place itself was small, but cluttered with all sorts of things, books, bags, tools, trinkets, bits and bobs here and there. It reminded him of the cluttered kitchen back in the Delibird Guild, except instead of steaming pots and glass bottles it was just full of weird... stuff. The wood gecko sighed inwardly at his own jumbled thoughts.

Dusknoir's face twisted somewhat in recognition, and Celebi smiled happily. Grovyle turned to look at the large, furry tail that wagged back and forth, and he blinked rapidly as the appendage fanned him. "Arcanine?"

The fire dog's head perked up, his ears twitching cheerfully at the wood gecko's uncertain greeting, and he padded a half-circle to face the three Pokemon. Grovyle noticed a faint patch of shiny blue scales behind Arcanine's head. "Oh! Hello, Grovyle! Sir, ma'am, it's good to see you as well!"

"Hi there, Arcanine!" Celebi said, waving brightly at the rescue guild member, and she and Grovyle walked up to the fire type. Dusknoir floated along as well after a short moment. "This is the general store, right?"

"Yes, ma'am." Arcanine panted vigorously. "I'm just buying a few things the Guildmaster said that we needed. What are you doing here, though? I thought you'd still want to be resting, sir, ma'am."

Grovyle brandished their haul in front of the pooch, who began to sniff loudly at the wooden cup. Arcanine grimaced lightly as he caught a strong whiff of the resin, and the wood gecko chuckled softly. "We're here to sell this stuff."

The sound of jingling coins rang through the small shop, and the four Pokemon looked over at the wall behind Arcanine's tail. A large, bright blue alligator, with a cream-colored jaw and bright red fins shuffled from one end of the room to the other, holding a fistful of coins in his large, clawed hands before scrabbling among something underneath the counter. The Feraligatr tried to stand up, only to loudly bonk his head on the top of the shelf, grunting hoarsely.

Celebi winced at the noise, and she fluttered over to help the water type up properly, easing him up to his full height. Arcanine expectantly put his front paws on the counter, and the shopkeeper tossed a small bundle towards him before rubbing at his sore fins. "What? Who said they were selling something now?"

"Ah, that was us, mister... uh?" Grovyle replied, walking up and sliding the cup of resin over to the pained Pokemon. Arcanine took the loose end of his cargo into his jaws before stepping back a few paces, bumping into Dusknoir in the process. He grinned sheepishly at the ghost, who simply moved out of the way.

"I'd better go back to the guild and bring this stuff to Guildmaster Delibird. You should come and visit sometime, the Guildmaster told us that you're freelance explorers, right?" Arcanine barked as best he could while keeping the bag secured between his teeth, and he nodded at the three explorers. "Uh, well, see you later, Grovyle, sir, ma'am! Thanks for the help, Azul!"

The Feraligatr raised his hand dismissively as Arcanine exited the building, and the three explorers smiled at the dog as he exited into the cold outdoors. Azul glared briefly at the new item as he picked it up, staring keenly at the cup's contents. He gave it a short poke and a brief shake before nodding sagely and putting it under the counter, and Celebi tilted her head in concern, brushing her antennae out of her eyes before wandering around to look at some of the things that were set out around the shop.

After a few seconds of seemingly-blind rummaging, the alligator's arm appeared and slammed some coins onto the wood, and he stepped backwards before standing up and dusting himself off. Grovyle took them into his hands, trying his best to keep any from slipping through his claws – he glanced at Dusknoir awkwardly, and the ghost floated over to take some of the cash into his own grasp. Azul seemed to notice their troubles, shooting them a toothy grin.

"You're freelancers?" His voice dripped with skepticism, and his eyes flicked over to Celebi, who had unfolded a piece of parchment that sat on a nearby table. "Must be falling on hard times if you don't even have a bag to carry things in."

Grovyle sighed in response, reaching up to stroke at his head-leaf. "It's... a long story."

"I guess it'd have to be, if you're trekking around with a legendary Pokemon in tow," Azul remarked idly, making the pink fairy in question start. She looked over her shoulder with widened eyes, and the Feraligatr grinned again. "Then again, I've had the Returners and other famous exploration teams in here from time to time, so I guess a legendary's another notch off the list."

"Returners... I remember that being mentioned before," Dusknoir muttered, catching the shopkeeper's attention with a raised brow. "Lin and Yama's daughter, Erin, is part of that team, right?"

"Oh, so you know Lin and Yama, huh?" Azul asked.

"We're staying with them, actually," Celebi answered as she fluttered back to her friends, shaking her trepidation away as she carried the parchment with her. "We were in trouble, and they found us and brought us to the Delibird Guild... they're helping us get back on our feet."

Azul drummed his claws against his chin for a moment before turning around and yanking one of the satchels off of the wall behind him, and he lightly tossed it at Grovyle. The wood gecko quickly lashed out to catch it by the long strap, dropping his money in the process. "Here. Gimme fifteen coins back and you can have that bag. Ten more and I'll throw in the map you're holding, miss Celebi."

"Uh? O-oh!" The grass type looked at the parchment again, and after picking up the loose change, Grovyle and Dusknoir peeked over her shoulders. Indeed, drawn on it was a large, detailed picture of Blizzard Island; Grovyle noticed small markings and lines scratched along the landmass, and names of what he guessed were mystery dungeons.

He narrowed his eyes as he scanned over the words 'Mount Avalanche' near the middle of the map, with Snowrest Village written off on the eastern tip. The map was a good one, he could tell that, but if it was anything to go by, they had been a long way from the village when they'd fainted. If Lin and Yama hadn't found them... he shuddered.

"That would be helpful," Dusknoir gruffly thanked the shopkeeper, and they exchanged goods with a quick handshake. Grovyle slung the satchel over his shoulder, the strap rubbing up against his scarf, and he patted the leathery surface with a small, reassuring smile. "Thank you, sir."

"I'd ask if you see anything else you like, but frankly there's not much here you could afford now." Azul shrugged, and he tried to lean against the wall, only to lose his balance and flop onto his tail with a thump. "Oof! Ergh... you hunting for work? Can't live off of selling tiny cups of resin alone, unless you've got a lot of tiny cups."

Grovyle nodded hesitantly, brushing the leaves on his arms as the alligator eyed him. He took another glance at the bag before replying. "Yeah actually, we are. We're still recovering from our, uh, long story, but finding work while we're staying with Lin and Yama is something we've had in mind."

"Well, ask around. Plenty you could probably do."

"That's why we're looking around the market, heheh," Celebi giggled lightly, folding up the map and slipping it into a pocket of the satchel. Dusknoir also passed Grovyle the last of their newfound money, and the wood gecko put it into the bag as well. "We should probably get back to introducing ourselves to everyone. It was good meeting you, sir!"

"Skedaddle, I've got more business to take care of." The Feraligatr shooed them away with a wave of his hands. "And don't worry about the cup, once I've melted the resin out of it, I'll pass it back home to Lin and Yama. Tell 'em I said thanks!"

A pair of visiting explorers came through the door as Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir said their goodbyes and walked back outside. The wood gecko curled his toes as he moved from hard wood to cold slush.

"Well, I guess that's one Pokemon we've met," Grovyle said quietly, looking up at the clear blue sky, and the wind began to pick up, nipping at his back. The scarf somehow helped to take the brunt of the chill, however, and the wood gecko buried his claws in the wool to keep them warm.

The market was finally beginning to look more like the sight they'd seen yesterday, with explorers and tourists and others plodding to and fro around the area, either heading to the shops, talking, or simply watching, as they were doing. Despite himself, Grovyle felt himself smile widely at the otherwise-innocuous sight.

It was a strange feeling, one that he thought he'd have been used to by now considering the time he spent in Treausre Town, but, well, here he was. Some of these Pokemon – no, probably all of these Pokemon – had no idea what it was like to live in a world where the planet was paralyzed, to be hunted or mistrusted or turned destructively cynical. And to Grovyle, it felt indescribably fulfilling. He wondered if Celebi and Dusknoir felt the same way... he figured they did. He hoped they did.

He was shaken out of his daze when he heard his name called out, and he rubbed at his temples with a claw as he looked over at Celebi. The fairy gently fluttered back and forth, the hum of flying helping to bring him back to his senses, and he stared deeply into her curious green eyes. He noticed a few Pokemon sending odd stares their way; he didn't think he'd been standing in place for that long, had he? "Grovyle? C'mon, we've still got more of Snowrest to see!"

"Alright," He replied quietly, stroking the cold away from his arms and legs, and the pair walked over to Dusknoir, who was idly scratching behind his neck. As the two grass types walked up to him, he looked around the village. "Sorry for keeping you waiting. Let's see what else is here."

His friends both gave him a thumbs-up in agreement, and the three set off into the crowd.

* * *

Lin sighed breathlessly as she stepped down into the small cove, walking past the inn as she made a beeline for one of the ships docked at the piers. Close to the end of said pier was a large-billed bird, stretching his wings and adjusting his mailbag as he readied himself to fly. The Mienshao slowed her pace somewhat as she stepped onto the slippery structure, the seawater keeping the wood icy and slick. "Pelipper, I'm glad I found you! Before you go, I have something for you!"

The mailbird turned around as she spoke, and he blinked in surprise, smiling as the graying mink eased to a stop. "Oh hi, miss Lin! I didn't get to see you yesterday! Did you get Erin's letter? I met those Pokemon staying with you."

"Yes, that's what they told me," The older Pokemon replied with a soft smirk, taking her glasses off and wiping them down with a fur sleeve. Pelipper closed the gap between them, wobbling forward a few steps as he flapped his wings a few more times. "I have something for you to deliver to Erin and her friends."

Lin reached forward with a new envelope, freshly sealed, and Pelipper took it into his beak, struggling to put it into his mailbag before the fighting type walked over and simply slipped the letter into the pack for him. He chuckled sheepishly, tapping his webbed feet against the pier as he stared at the ship nearby. "Alrighty, then I'm glad you found me before I left too!"

The two were interrupted by a loud yell from the Poliwrath on the ship, and the two Pokemon looked over at the ship as the sailors and their captain scrubbed the decks thoroughly, trying to wash off the coating of ice that had formed on the surface of the hulking wooden craft. Without all the cargo that they had unloaded a few days ago, the ship looked empty, and more than a little forlorn. Pelipper chuckled as one of the Pokemon began to slid back and forth as he tried to move around.

"I guess I'm glad you're not sending a package to her." The water bird flapped a few inches above the pier. "I wonder if the crew is new. They're normally more used to this, aren't they?"

"Yes, well..." Lin stifled a laugh of her own as the sailor bumped into his crewmates, and soon enough nearly every Pokemon on-board was tumbling about. "I should get back to the house and help Yama, he's cutting up a tree that he and Grovyle and Celebi found in the forest."

"Okay, then I'll get going. See you when I see you next time, miss Lin!" Pelipper waved to the older woman before beating his wings hard, skimming over the frigid water before catching an updraft and soaring away. Lin watched him go, smiling faintly as she watched her letter to her daughter begin its journey to its destination, wherever that might have been. After a few minutes of silence, she turned around and slowly began to make her way back to the coastline.

* * *

"They seemed rather nice, didn't they?" Celebi stated aloud as she and her friends exited the large stone building, the heat of the smithy having warmed them up so much that their scarves felt like campfires against their bodies – which was handy as the wind outside had grown very strong, even blowing a scant few clouds in overhead. Grovyle simply shivered and tugged the wool closer to his chest, and Dusknoir folded his arms.

"I don't think either of you would benefit from working there, though, given your weakness to fire," The ghost mentioned dryly, and Celebi lost a little altitude as she realized the fair point. She looked over at him with a resigned pout.

Grovyle nodded as he pulled the map out of the bag, unfolding it and placing a claw atop the small picture of Snowrest. Celebi and Dusknoir floated over, peering over his shoulders at the weathered paper. "Well, we've seen Azul at the shop, the smith, and the little storage building. Now where should we go?"

"Hey, hold it there! Stop! Thief! THIEF!"

The sudden shout caused the three young Pokemon to tense up, and Grovyle hunched forward, his eyes flicking about as he searched for the source of the noise. They snapped their heads around to look at the general store when another yell rang through the air: Azul was pounding out of the door, hot on the trail of a small, blue-colored bug that carried a glass money jar under its arm and held a shimmering wonder orb in his other. The strange Pokemon jumped and shoved past much of the crowd, which stumbled backwards in surprise, and as the Feraligatr began to close in, the thief spun around.

"Close your eyes," Dusknoir whispered urgently, placing his hands on his friends' backs, and Grovyle and Celebi glimpsed the ghost out of the corner of their eyes.

"Dusknoir, what are you-"

"Do it! Both of you, now!"

The bug type reached into the air with the magical sphere, which began to glow with a blindingly-bright light, and Grovyle did as he was told, scrunching his eyes tightly shut as he recognized the tactic, and he brought his arms up in front of his face as a precaution; both he and Dusknoir knew very well what was about to happen, given they'd done it once before.

He heard something shatter, and then a loud, dazed cry come from the townsfolk and the multitude of visitors as the luminous orb was smashed into the ground, and after a second or two he felt a tug on his arm. Letting his vision crack open a tad, he blinked once as the ghost got his attention. "It's clear now. You can see again."

Celebi sucked in a breath as she peered around the market, and Grovyle quickly did the same – Azul had been knocked flat onto his backside, having gotten the full force of the flash, and many of the others that had been looking around the village were similarly affected, mostly rubbing their eyes and wincing in pain.

The bug type, still holding onto his stolen cash, had paused momentarily to get his bearings, and with a satisfied nod he made a break for the forest at the edges of town. Grovyle dashed forward, his satchel slapping loudly against his side, and he beckoned his friends to follow him. "He's getting away, let's go!"

"G-Grovyle, wait!" Celebi exclaimed, swooping away to chase the wood gecko, and Dusknoir quickly floated along with her, moving as fast as he was able.

* * *

**A/N: I'm mildly surprised (and somewhat dryly amused) by how many follows, favorites, and reviews this has gotten in the little-over-one-month it's been up here, especially in comparison to Beyond the Sky or the PMD oneshots I've been posting (which, if I may shamelessly self-promote, you might enjoy as well, if you like To Live).**

**Since, judging from some of the reviews, some of you fellas may-or-may-not have taken a peek at my profile, I have a large amount of worldbuilding available for reading at the tumblr 'returnerofthesky', in a sidebar link. Reading it is not necessary to read this story - and, since it seems to be quite popular regardless of knowing the worldbuilding or not, I seem to be succeeding in that regard - but it may tickle your fancy.**


	9. Chapter 9

"Stop! You're not going to get away that easily!"

The cold slush nipped at Grovyle's ankles as he pounded across the snowfield, his narrowed yellow eyes trained on the pink-headed bug that was just ahead of him. The ninja-like Pokemon weaved in and out of the small shoots growing at the border of the pine forest, the sunlight turning to mottled spots along the ground as it streamed through the blanket of pine needles that hung above the Pokemon's heads. The stolen glass jar, filled to the brim with jingling coins, was noisy enough to give away the thief's position, no matter how hard he tried to snuff it out.

The tall trees finally began to rise fully towards the sky as the two Pokemon entered into a particularly overgrown thicket, and the bug type sped up somewhat before suddenly spinning around and launching himself forward with incredible speed. Grovyle, still running after the now-approaching outlaw, had barely any time to react, only just managing to dig his heels into the dirt a second before the collision. It wasn't enough, and the wood gecko yelled out as he was slammed into the ground, his fall cushioned a bit by his leather satchel.

"Don't try it," The Pokemon muttered, his voice a strange hiss, and the sound of the stolen money faded out quickly as Grovyle rose up, getting to his feet as he tried to catch his breath. He could feel a bruise already starting to form on his chest, the darkening skin hidden somewhat by the ends of his scarf. It was still warm from the visit he, Celebi and Dusknoir had paid to the forge, and he pressed the wool against his body, sighing as the stinging lessened.

"Wait!" Celebi called out, and the wood gecko looked over his shoulder at the fairy, her wings flapping strongly as she swooped over to him. Dusknoir followed close behind the two of them, breathing surprisingly heavily for someone who floated his way around. "Oh no... did we lose him?"

Grovyle nodded, gritting his teeth as he brought a hand up to cover his wound, and Celebi's face turned into an unhappy pout. Dusknoir grunted mildly as he scanned his eye around the forest, folding his arms in thought as he interrupted. "This forest feels like a mystery dungeon... the outlaw must have made his hideout somewhere here. If he was any further away from town, he wouldn't have dared to try and do this during the day like he did."

"Are you sure, Dusknoir?" Grovyle blurted out, only recalling the ghost's own experiences a few seconds afterward. Even if the grass type hadn't thought of it on his own, the unamused stare that was shot his way would have helped to jog his memory.

"I'm absolutely sure," Dusknoir answered shortly, patting the mouth-like markings on his belly before letting his hands drop to his sides. "He's most likely headed for the deepest part of this forest."

"Then let's get going! He's probably got a big head-start on us already!" Celebi said with a determined nod, gesturing at Grovyle and Dusknoir to start moving again.

"Right." Looking around, Grovyle noticed a wavy line snaking its way through the snow, though a couple of trees had been deliberately shaken to deposit what small amounts of white fluff their branches carried onto the sort-of footprints. Tracing the path with his eyes, he noticed the sunlight dim somewhat as it moved further in, high breezes rustling through the leaves. "Hopefully the outlaw's tracks don't disappear on us anytime soon. Let's head for that shady area."

The three jogged deeper into the thicket, making sure to keep pace with each other in case the outlaw decided to ambush them. The path twisted and turned, crossing heavy roots and small, lumpy burrows that blended in with the rest of the mounds of dirt and sleet; Grovyle almost expected them to loop around a few times for good measure, like he and Bill had always done to shake anyone following them off of their trail.

Time seemed to stand still as they made their way through the pale pine forest, setting Dusknoir on edge. The ghost's head flicked around with every sound, whether it was the moving cover of pine needles above them or Grovyle stepping on a crunchier bit of frozen soil, and he grumbled under his breath as he fiddled with his scarf and shawl collar to try and calm himself down. Despite himself, he glanced over at a group of dead, fallen branches when he heard yet another shuffling.

"Hmmm..." Celebi hummed softly, taking hold of a wobbly twig for a moment, and she poked at a loose pinecone before flying back to her friends. "I don't see anything useful growing in here... I hope it isn't all barren."

"Lin and Yama said that Snowrest was primarily a farming community," Dusknoir muttered, letting the small talk push his mind elsewhere. "The Frozen Island was never a reliable source of supplies, even when Master Dialga and I compared it to the rest of the paralyzed planet. The feral Pokemon that had to eke out a living there were almost always foraging what little they could find."

Grovyle rubbed at the base of his head-leaf, the sun's warmth feeling oh-so-far-away. He snaked his hand into the satchel, pushing their map to one side as he ran his claws around the empty pocket. "The forest right now doesn't seem much better."

A high-pitched squeak cut through the chatter, and the trio whirled around, spotting a yellow cone that waddled behind them, a good few strides away from where they were. Two beady blue eyes peeked out at them from a little black body, and its round, stubby arms and legs tried their best to push through the layer of snow that sat on the forest floor. Grovyle felt himself smile at the familiar figure, and Dusknoir reacted similarly, raising his head in surprise. "That's... a Snorunt!"

The little ice type Pokemon stopped in its tracks when it heard its name called out, and it looked around and shivered anxiously, tugging its snow hat closer around itself. Celebi blew her antennae out of her face before nudging the grass type's and the ghost type's shoulders. "Guys, don't forget that this isn't the future of darkness anymore... it's probably not the same Snorunt you met while you were chasing after Primal Dialga."

Grovyle took a step forward, then paused to mull over the legendary Pokemon's words – she was right, but it didn't seem aggressive. If anything, it seemed like it was frightened, which sent a mild twinge through the wood gecko's nerves. Could something be following it? If they got sidetracked by something strong, they'd lose track of the thief for sure.

"Hey," He said gently, kneeling down as he reached towards the Snorunt with open palms, the leaves on his arms just barely grazing against the dirt. "Can I ask you something?"

The ice type peeked out from its snow hat for a moment, tilting its head at the question. "Gigigi?"

"Dark future or not, they still speak the same gibberish," Dusknoir murmured behind his hand, and Celebi frowned lightly at him before lowering herself onto the ground and ambling over to her friend's side. The ghost simply floated behind them and watched.

"Did you see any strange Pokemon come running through the forest before my friends and I?" Grovyle continued to speak soothingly, trying not to spook the childish Pokemon any more than it already was. The Snorunt tapped its little hands together a few times before shaking its head. "Hm... oh! Did you hear any kind of clinking or ringing noise?"

The Snorunt's eyes widened somewhat, and it hopped in place cheerfully and answered with a stream of incomprehensible chatter. Celebi giggled lightly at the ice type, and Grovyle smiled and nodded. "Can you tell us which direction the ringing went?"

The Snorunt nodded shortly, stepping past the trio with a quiet pitter-patter, and they followed it for a few seconds before it stopped and leaned partially to its left, using the tip of its hat to point where it thought the bug type had gone. Dusknoir rubbed at his chin in thought, and Grovyle stroked at the leaves on his head and arms to try and keep them from going numb. Celebi took the Snorunt's hands into hers and shook them, her eyes bright and happy among the otherwise shady understory. "Thank you for helping us!"

The snow hat Pokemon nodded in return, and the three explorers waved briefly before dashing away into the thicket, the pine trees starting to grow paler and paler as they ran along. A couple more wild Pokemon, baby Poochyenas and sleepy Sentrets that didn't even bother to try and bother the strangers intruding on their territory. For a mystery dungeon, the pine thicket was oddly tame; the sheer difference between it and the dark future were a little hard to tie together.

They slowed down when a soft shifting of metal drifted through the air, and soon enough they entered into a bushy patch. Grovyle instinctively squatted down, curling into a small lump as the figure of the bug type came into view in front of a particularly large trunk, his colorful frame standing out clearly against the almost-snow-white wood. Celebi darted next to Grovyle as the thief's head snapped back to look over his shoulder, having heard her buzzing wings; Dusknoir had already hidden himself behind a snowbank piled up next to a fallen log.

"...Hmph. I need to finish this fast." Grovyle carefully poked his head out from the ground, squinting as he tried to see what the thief was doing, and Celebi climbed up onto his back. The pink fairy held tightly to his scarf and rested her chin atop his head-leaf. "Starting to get too paranoid."

The jar of coins shook as the ninja bug lifted it up into his arms again. Dusknoir gestured towards his two friends, and they watched as he closed his red eye and floated quietly around to the outlaw's side. Grovyle exhaled in silent agreement, their target continuing to mutter darkly under his breath. "And these stupid things aren't helping either."

Dusknoir held up three fingers, Celebi dug her feet into the wood gecko's back, and Grovyle readied himself to jump out from the shrubbery. Two fingers. One finger. A fist.

"Hold it right there, thief!" Celebi yelled out strongly, swooping over to the unguarded part of the clearing as the three explorers revealed themselves. Her shout caused the Pokemon to jump a bit in shock, and the outlaw whirled around with a startled expression on his face – his surprise morphed into a grimace of displeasure when he recognized his pursuers, letting out a low whistle and pressing his loot against his chest.

"...I told you not to try it," He dropped his voice to a dangerous hiss, leering at Grovyle as he spoke, and the wood gecko stepped back, pushing his satchel behind his back as he dug his heels into the dirt again. The thief shook his head dismissively, leisurely dipping his arm into the pile of cash to take a single coin out. "You might have followed me, but I'm still more than a match for you. If you three want this cash so bad, then you can go ahead and take it back!"

The jar of money harshly rang out as the bug type flung it strongly onto the ground, the glass shattering into dozens of shards, and Dusknoir yelped in pain as the thief flung his single coin into his eye. Grovyle felt his heart take a sudden nosedive, and Celebi sprang forward, holding her hands together as her eyes and antennae began to glow.

The thief ducked quickly as the fairy launched a group of glowing leaves at him; Grovyle ran forward as well, letting the leaves on his arms sharpen into a blade. The bug type noticed, though, and he swiped a few pieces of the broken jar from the ground. The clear glass sparkled from the light of Celebi's attack, and Grovyle sucked in a breath as he forced himself to trip and fall, wincing as the impact worsened his bruised chest. He could hear the air whistle above his head-leaf as the deadly projectiles missed him by mere inches.

Celebi's stream of magical leaves tapered off, and Dusknoir reared back to throw a hefty punch into the bug type's face, but said bug type was quicker without being burdened by the stolen money; he bounced up into a somersault and slammed firmly onto the yellow top of Dusknoir's head, using the extra height to jump towards the higher branches of the pale trees. He grabbed onto one and swung up.

With both her friends otherwise preoccupied, Celebi fluttered high into the canopy as well. However, it was already too late; the bug type was nowhere to be seen. The fairy cupped her arms to her mouth. "If you don't try it again, we won't chase you either, outlaw!"

"Ugh..." Grovyle grunted as he forced himself onto his feet, and he watched as his friend reappeared from the bristling layer of fresh pine needles. "Did he... did he get away?"

"Yeah," The legendary Pokemon answered with a nod, folding her arms defiantly. Grovyle bowed his head, curling his claws into fists as he glanced over at the pile of coins and broken glass. The fairy hummed lightly as she floated over to the money, letting a smile onto her face despite what had happened. "But at least he didn't get away with what he tried to steal."

Grovyle smiled warmly, his beating heart calming down somewhat as his friend pointed out the silver lining. She was right – even if they hadn't caught the thief, they'd still managed to get Azul's coins back. "Yeah. I guess things aren't all bad."

"We should gather all of this up and put it into the bag," Dusknoir chimed in, and they looked over at the ghost, still caressing his sore head. Grovyle slipped the satchel off of his shoulder and knelt down, and both he and Dusknoir began to scoop the coins into their new home. "And then we need to find our way back to the village."

"Oh! I'll go fly up to the top of the forest and see which way it is, then!" Celebi piped up cheerfully, and without another word she flew off, the branches shaking slightly from her speed. A soft breeze blew through the tree trunks again, and Grovyle let his eyes linger skyward. Who had that bug type been? The wood gecko had seen a fair amount of different Pokemon in the dark future, but he wasn't sure that he'd ever seen anything like what the outlaw had been. He was sure about him being a bug type, but... hmm...

Grovyle shook his head and dug his claws into the pile of glittering gold coins again. He'd ask Azul or somebody about it later. For now, he had more pressing things to work on.

* * *

The cloudless sky was tinted peach by the time the three of them ambled back into the marketplace, now far less crowded than it had been during the morning rush. The rhythmic beating of hammered metal still rang out from the forge, loud enough to hear from the edges of the pine forest, melding pleasantly with the muted clinking of the coins in the leather satchel. Celebi smiled as the sight of the cabins finally drew near. "Alright, we made it back okay!"

"And there's... Azul now...?" Dusknoir trailed off as they spotted the Feraligatr near his store; he was speaking with a Glaceon and a Magnemite, both Pokemon looking very sternly at the shopkeeper. Upon hearing their footsteps, the three looked up at Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir. Azul smiled in mild relief, pushing past the others to greet the approaching explorers with a wave of his clawed hand.

"You three!" The alligator's gruff voice carried a worried note, and he furrowed his brow as he looked them over. The Glaceon and Magnemite strolled up behind him, the former nodding curtly at Grovyle. "Where's... where's that thief? Where's the money he stole from me!?"

"We found the outlaw, but we weren't able to defeat him," Grovyle explained, and he hastily raised his hand up as Azul gnashed his teeth in frustration. "W-wait, sir! He escaped further into the forest, but we were still able to get your coins back."

The wood gecko slipped the satchel's strap off of his shoulder and held the bag out to the shopkeeper, who hesitantly took it into his hands, blinking at the soft sound of metal shifting inside. All six of them watched as Azul flipped open the pocket of the bag, his expression breaking into a wide, toothy grin as he ran his clawtips along the top of the pile of coins.

"It's all here, officer Glaceon... more or less, anyway," Azul murmured, and he stood up again, taking a moment to compose himself before continuing to speak. Glaceon turned to look at her partner and whispered something, and the levitating steel type hurried away, its magnets blinking red and blue as it left the scene. "I'm gonna guess that he got away because he stopped carrying around that heavy ol' glass jar?"

"That's right, mister Azul!" Celebi replied with a smile, fluttering back and forth in the air. Grovyle caught a glimpse of a few straggling villagers wandering into the marketplace, only to find themselves shooed away by the Glaceon when they noticed the crime scene. "He ended up breaking it, though, so we brought it back in the bag we bought this morning. It's not too big of a deal, is it?"

"Nah, it's no big problem, miss Celebi. I've got some glass jars for sale anyway, I'll just use one of those as a replacement."

"Er-hem..." The unintroduced Pokemon cleared her throat, and the three explorers turned their heads to look at the ice type, looking small next to the large alligator at her side. She eyed them right back. "You must be the three freelancers that Azul briefed us about. Grovyle, Dusknoir and Celebi, right? Staying with Lin and Yama just south of here?"

"Yes, ma'am," Dusknoir replied, folding his arms and drumming his fingers. Grovyle and Celebi simply nodded, and the ice type smiled politely, stomping at the snow to try and get her thoughts in order.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, then. My name is Glaceon, graduate of the Delibird Guild. I'm the commanding officer of the law stationed here in Snowrest Village." She took a deep breath and proudly puffed out her chest, her dark blue eyes framed by a pair of teal fur flaps that hung from a tuft on her forehead. Grovyle knelt down to shake her front paw. "You said that you didn't defeat Accelgor?"

"Accelgor?" Grovyle repeated, tilting his head in confusion. Was that the outlaw's name? The wood gecko noticed Glaceon's patient stare, and he coughed and nodded to get himself back on track. "Er, sorry, ma'am. We cornered the thief near a big tree deep in the forest and got him to throw the glass jar away, but he managed to escape up into the trees."

"I flew up after him, though! But he was already gone when I looked." Celebi added, scratching under her scarf. Officer Glaceon closed her eyes and exhaled grumpily, letting her gaze drift over towards the forest beyond the buildings.

"...well, at least you were able to get the stolen goods back," She remarked bluntly, though without any malice behind her words, and Grovyle glanced over at his two friends. Celebi shrugged as she idly fluttered in place, and Dusknoir helped the wood gecko back onto his feet. "Accelgor... he's gotten bold to try a stunt like this."

"Who is he, anyway?" Celebi asked, fluttering back and forth as the wind kicked up. "And what do you mean by bold, ma'am?"

"He's an outlaw that we've been hearing about for about a week or two now," Glaceon explained, raising her head to peer at the grass type. "Attempted theft, generally, and he's smart about it too. He knows when to give up what he's got if it's too big of a risk, though I guess you learned that the hard way. He's never come this close to Snowrest before, so this isn't good at all."

"What?" Dusknoir exclaimed with a start, looking sternly at the fresh snow Pokemon, who looked right back at him. "But... that doesn't make sense. He'd be a fool to try this without a safe hideout close by, so he must be closer than you think, correct?"

"I'm afraid not, mister Dusknoir." The icy fox shook her head, fur flaps shaking with the movement. She glanced both ways briefly before lowering her voice. "From the reports we've received from his victims, he's mostly targeted explorers, and he was always on the western side of the island. He only seemed to be preying on Pokemon exploring around the Crevice Cave and the mountains that lie just north of it... until now, at least."

"So... he's likely far away by now, then," The ghost murmured, resting his folded arms on top of the eye-shaped markings on his body. The officer nodded before letting go of a long breath of frustration, her brow furrowed and jaw set.

"Whether he's going to hang back for the moment or not, he's a slippery one... he's even robbed a few of the explorers that went to try and arrest him in the first place. The rest of the officers here won't be happy to hear about this... we're probably going to have to start patrolling the village during daylight hours now in case any straggling outlaws or wannabe gangs try to follow Accelgor's example." Glaceon thought aloud, notes of determination slipping into her otherwise-level voice. Grovyle gave her a short, confident nod of approval, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Don't worry, Glaceon," Azul interrupted the officer's musings, and she turned her head to look at the Feraligatr, who had shouldered the bag of money. "Even if these three couldn't bring him in today, I think they've gotten the closest to catching him at all, or at least gotten pretty close, anyway. Speaking of which..."

He turned towards the three Pokemon, and Grovyle felt Celebi seat herself atop his shoulder, her wings flapping lazily a few times as Azul addressed them. "You said back this morning that you three were looking for work, right?"

The wood gecko nodded, feeling something stir in the pit of his stomach. He hoped that Azul was taking this conversation where he thought it was going. "That's right, sir. We were looking around the marketplace today to see what was here. We haven't been to Blizzard Island much before, and Lin and Yama both recommended finding a less-dangerous job than exploring."

"Hm." Azul ran his palm down the line of red fins sticking up from his head and back. "...come and see me tomorrow, around the same time you did today. And don't be late, got it?"

"You're...!?" Dusknoir blurted out, and Azul peered over the two grass types' shoulders at the surprised, wide-eyed ghost. "You're going to give us a job... working at your store?"

"Oh! Eheh, sorry, not quite," Azul shook his head. "With due respect to you and missus Celebi, I was just asking Grovyle to work at the store. With four Pokemon working in there, there'd be no room to breathe. 'Sides, if I hired all of you, I might as well have just let you keep the bag, cash and all."

Celebi wore a pout as she let her head fall into her hands, and Dusknoir grumbled under his breath. Grovyle couldn't blame them – their hopes had gone up and then down in the span of a few seconds – but kept quite anyway. Azul's offer was definitely quite generous. The fairy on his shoulder sighed. "Hmm... but then where should Dusknoir and I look? I was hoping that all three of us could keep looking around tomorrow and the day after that..."

Azul's face softened sympathetically, and he tramped over and patted the top of the pink fairy's head. She yawned quietly, blowing her antennae out of her eyes once the alligator left off. "You helped me get my savings back from a thief. If you really want me to, I'll put a good word in for you, but that kind of news'll travel fast around here."

"I had better be leaving now, everyone. I'll need to tell the other officers about adding more patrols. Azul, thank you for sending for us." Glaceon cut in, and the four Pokemon watched as she rose to her feet and stood at attention, raising one paw in a salute before turning to look at the trio of explorers. "And as for you... thank you for your cooperation with this matter, freelancers. I'll be seeing you around, then. Goodbye!"

Azul and Celebi waved brightly as the officer turned around and trotted off into the village, and Grovyle raised his head upwards some. He could see a couple stars beginning to appear; was it already almost the end of the evening? The day had gone by in a flash.

"I oughta mosey on back to the shop as well, and get these coins into a proper safebox. Heh!" Azul chuckled to himself, and he glanced at Grovyle briefly before turning around and heading towards his doorway. "I'll give you your bag and your map back when you get here tomorrow, kid! Bright and early, and you had better not be late, you hear me?"

"Alright then, Azul! See you tomorrow morning!" The wood gecko yelled back, startling Celebi off of his shoulder, and he gave the pink fairy a sheepish smile when she tugged on the ends of his scarf in response. She laughed cheerfully, stretching her arms out as she flew circles around her two friends.

"We should go home too. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as busy as today turned out to be," Dusknoir remarked dryly, patting the markings on his belly a few times as a peaceful calm settled over the marketplace, and after a few seconds he began to float down the dirt path leading back to Lin and Yama's house. Grovyle and Celebi both shared a mutual nod before following after the ghost. Both grass types suddenly felt very, very tired – a warm meal and fireplace sounded good right about now.

* * *

"Master Dialga, I don't mean to doubt your judgment, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary around this area," Lapras said quietly, letting the wind carry his voice along as he pushed his way into the small clearing where the cobalt-blue dragon stood. The place was overgrown with tall grass and sprouting dandelions, with only a cliff wall keeping the forest at bay. The sea creature slowly ambled over to Dialga, the god of time seemingly lost in thought.

"I TAKE NO OFFENSE, LAPRAS," Dialga replied as he stomped his way towards part of the cliffside, inspecting a few rocks that had fallen by the wayside; no doubt it was damage done during the Temporal Crisis, Lapras figured. "I AM ACTUALLY RATHER HAPPY THAT YOU DO NOT SEE ANYTHING STRANGE HERE."

The water type perked up immediately, cocking his head in confusion at his master's words. "What do you mean? Was there something before?"

The temporal Pokemon turned around and took a deep breath, returning to Lapras' side and glancing halfway at the wall again. He gestured towards it with a casual nudge of his head, and Lapras followed the movement, letting his gaze sit on the bottom of the cliff: part of it had been chipped and carved away to form a rounded half-circle, its top as smooth as the tiles of Temporal Tower.

He narrowed his eyes, trying his best to see something that just didn't seem to be there. It was an unusual carving, perhaps – especially if it had been carved by time and nature alone – but there didn't seem to be any significance to it. "...I'm sorry, Master, but everything seems to be in order."

"MMM..." Dialga replied with a low hum, his expression turning from ambivalence to embarrassment. The legendary Pokemon's tail dragged a line in the dirt as he took a few steps away, letting the cool night air wash over him as he raised his head high. "THEN EVERYTHING IS INDEED IN ORDER. THANK YOU FOR ACCOMPANYING ME HERE."

"Wait... Master, I don't understand," Lapras blurted out, and Dialga turned to watch the water type scrunch his face up. Inwardly, he smiled a broad smile at the younger Pokemon's perplexed reaction. "Did you expect to find something here in the forest or not?"

The dragon shook his head, gesturing at their home far in the distance, shining silvery blue in the light, just as he was. The structure, as whole as it had been for the past few years, gave Lapras his answer. "AS LONG AS THE TOWER AND I STAND STRONG, THIS PLACE... AND OTHERS... WILL NEVER BE NEEDED AGAIN."

"Others, Master?"

"COME, LAPRAS. WE SHOULD LET THESE PASSAGES SLEEP."

* * *

**A/N: Long wait, eh? I had the outline for this chapter over a month ago, but certain unpleasants made my enthusiasm drop like a stone, alongside getting distracted by a completely different game that I wrote a couple things for. I'm getting back into the groove, though, and it shouldn't take quite as long for another update.**


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